A journey continues...

Surface Tension was born out a frustration I needed to verbalize over the death of my mother. She died in November 2005 of colon cancer – although the real culprit was an overzealous regimen of chemotherapy. She died without speaking to any of us, a tube snaked down her throat.
Doesn’t me we didn’t communicate. We got to say our goodbyes, which frankly, came way too quickly.

And Surface Tension became a place where I less wrote about my personal life and more about trying to figure out if I had the chops to make it as a writer (cap W) and not just a journalist (still a wonderful, fulfilling career).

Last week, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. It’s treatable, just not curable.
And has the control to make decisions on how his life with end.
Without getting into too much detail – I don’t feel like it’s my purview to “spill my guts” here – he did say if he had to live in pain the rest of his days, he’d rather not. And as he slipped a pain pill between his lips, I told him that it was his choice, it was the end to his life and he was in control of it. That course will be partially decided when he visits his oncology team.
Moving forward, we’ll be able to spend time – there’s at least one fishing trip scheduled – and we’re talking about taking the Chrysler on a road trip to his hometown in Massachusetts.

People ask how I’m doing. Having gone through this before, I tell them that I’m OK. That it’s not about me. That I will have my dad for a time, where I didn’t get that with mom.
But I’ll be keeping those feelings off The Tension. He’s a private man and I need to respect that. This will color my evolution, there is no doubt.
And The Tension will remain my journey.