Tri For a Cure

It was a fine, fine summer morning - the kind that is so bright, warm, breezy and rich that folks living here in Maine are willing to forgive a whole Winter of misery.

We have to have days like that. It's almost an expectation, a demand; payment, if you will, for the real struggle that life can sometimes be.

On a day like that, Sunday, two days ago, seeing 770 women push themselves to raise a reported $440,000 to support the Maine Cancer Foundation, well, that is something that offsets what can seem like a lifetime of misery.

We're not talking the weather, we're talking about cancer. I suppose it's inevitable and maybe it's a foolish Native American attitude to think that there should not be a cure for everything. Some things just kill people and how we see the balance of life and death can be a measure of our maturity.

Doesn't mean you can't try to kick it's ass anyway. The Seminoles have never signed a peace treaty with the U.S. government - I don't see why we need to sign one with cancer.

So there is Cathy, Chief the Wonderdog's Mom, in a floral-topped triathalon suit, a little nervous but already a veteran of two races down in Orlando. Of course, Casco Bay and the Florida coast are different critters when it comes to hitting the water for a third of a mile, but Cathy, she's a gamer, she is, and off she went.

Her parents were there to see her as well. Next time they're not brining the chairs because A) they want to be moving to watch the various transitions and B) they're not going to have time to sit to wait for the transitions if Cathy has anything to say about it.

If you have to have a hero for something like this, Cathy is about as good as you're going to find.

One of the reasons I left teaching is the false dichotomy between "process" and "product", between "Feel good" and "grades/test". My experieince has been that working to build your grade point average strengthens you and that both are equal parts of the equation. The Universe is big enough for both.

Call it a foolish Native American Attitude.

The Tri for a Cure is proof enough. It's partly what you've done, it's partly who you had to become in order to do it.

I like that. People should go out of their way more to do wonderful things for each other - and themselves.

Well done - as if my opinion mattered ...

Check out the video I shot.