[tompkins]

There are days: photo camera is not your friend, bet two of your top three and the OTHER own comes in, your choice is a late scratch or the rider falls off....Tough stuff.

I have a built-in answer to these which hits me all the time: PERSPECTIVE. Just this week as a mass of crap left over from my late wife's passing hit me head on, I just remembered Bob, who I had visited in intenstive care over the weekend. He is MY age and in the terminal stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) and it has now effected his muscles of respiration so he does not have long. He sits upright (fluid would fill hs lungs if he laid down) staring at happier days (a picture of he and his wife on one of their anniversaries adorns the table next to his wheelchair). His voice is very quiet and slurred now, yet, through all of this, he took time to make a joke of how he looked when I visited him.

Here is a man about to die. He is not pulling his hair even if he could. His courage humbles me.

Even if you don't know a fellow like Bob, just remember things can be a lot worse than they are today.