What Zombies Have Taught Me

From one of the most original and dramatic graphic novels in recent memory to one of the best television programs on any network, there are lessons to be learned.

1. Focus on your goal.  When something is important to you, such as eating the brains of the living, or maybe getting a promotion at work, let nothing else distract you from the task.
2. Don't be discouraged.  Even when others around you have failed, keep going.  No matter how many before you have had their heads skewered by the naysayers of life, you still must persevere.  
3. Communication is best when succinct.  Too much time is often wasted on flowery messages.  Let others know what you're after with short, memorable key ideas.
4. Never be complacent.  You've made it.  You're resting on your achievements, but then, shambling out from the woods, there's more of the competition waiting to bite you.
5. Accuracy is essential. Never waste your efforts.  Be precise. You can't afford to miss.
6. Trust in yourself; respect the rest.  You never know what the other guy might do, even within your own team.  Know your abilities, and and rely on others, but don't ever take trust for granted.
7. Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.  When your situation changes, don't be overwhelmed.  Use what you can all around you.  Even a broken chair might be more useful than you ever thought.  
8. Teamwork is effective under strong leadership.  Once you take on the role of a leader, others will look to you for leadership.  Simple, but true.  Leaders must be willing and able to lead through every crisis.  This means having the ability to delegate responsibilities to those whose strengths you have recognized.  Doing it all alone leads to high stress and can create mental exhaustion.
9. Take advice from the team.  Sometimes the wisdom to lead has to be supported by wisdom from the team.  Even the most brilliant leaders surround themselves with trusted advisers.  
10. Know what you're fighting for.  The struggle doesn't matter unless you know why you're engaged in it.  More than anything else, your knowledge of why you fight will keep you aware, sharp, and successful for another day.

Life gives us lessons from unexpected sources, even from the undead.

All good things...

Nora's Crocodile Rockers, 2012, JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes

Dear Family, Friends, Loved Ones, and Colleagues,

I am asking for your help. I ain't askin nobody for nothin, if I can't get it on my own.  So goes the song, but I can't get this on my own. I hope you can offer some kind of financial support to bolster the great research happening today which is bringing a cure for diabetes a bit closer. For those who are interested to know more, please read on. I have tried to help someone on the outside of the problem appreciate a bit of the reality of life with diabetes.

Nine years ago our family experienced a profound transformation. We became a family with a type 1 diabetic child. Our first child, Eleanor, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while she was still only two. Each day since then, each hour, has included some chore, task, reference, thought, or responsibility demanded of us by diabetes. Please do not think of this as an exaggeration, because if I err, it will be in making the demands less pressing than what they are.

And so we live. We focus on life with as much positive energy as we can. Nora does an excellent job of accepting her circumstances on most days. The rest of us do as well. Blood sugar checks number into the multi-thousands that have been endured so far. Daily shots have given way to the self enclosed delivery device called an OmniPod. This device still has to be monitored, though, and changed no less than every three days. This involves having a spring loaded needle inject the delivery line under the skin. It hurts. The insulin that we have put into the pod then gets gradually delivered into the blood as programming suggests. Who programs it? We do. The programming is based on experience and ever-changing needs of the user. Nothing is automatic; not really.

And so we plan. After nine years we are getting pretty proficient with our knowledge of food and its various carbohydrate counts. Nora gives herself more insulin, called a bolus, whenever she eats. This is based on the carbohydrates in the food. Again, formulas are used, but life is inexact. We still practice a refined form of guess work when needed. When the birthday parties, sleepovers, field trips, celebration dinners, etc. arise, we try our best to plan for it, or at least react well to what is being offered. Nora is growing and changing, and her insulin demands continue to change accordingly. She has completed a kids’ triathlon, and she wants to do more, proving that her limits are still far on the horizon.She has chosen to play cello now in the school orchestra, so her fingers, the parts she uses for checking BG, will endure more stress.


And we educate. Nora is another year older, and we all are slightly wiser. Still we find ourselves dealing frequently with misconceptions and ignorance about diabetes. Since Nora’s pod is sometimes visible she gets asked about it. She explains the situation quite well, but I wonder when she might get sick of saying it all. Well meaning people, both family and friends alike, still make comments that amaze me. Recently we were asked again if it is OK for Nora to have chocolate. I have heard someone telling another that she is not allowed to eat sugar. Others persist in these outdated assumptions that come from times when diabetes was not understood well, and its management tools were severely limited. I was happy to help my friend, Lizmari Collazo, again this year in promoting the Diabetes Ice Cream Social, just to combat some of those outdated ideas.

And we hope. Our lives are woven with the demands of type 1 diabetes. But the reason we ask for help and support is because we hope for a day when we can let go of that part of life. We hope to leave behind our diabetic lifestyle one day soon. Please help us to reach that important goal.

We are walking again this year on October 6th at Military Park, Indianapolis. The Walk for a Cure is a great day to bring together hundreds of people in one place to support JDRF and its efforts fund research. If you wish to donate, you can do so online by following the links I have listed below. You may also write a check payable to JDRF. Any size of donation is useful and appreciated, and all are tax deductible.

Please visit my walk fundraising page at the following link. This will allow you to make an online donation if you should choose to do so. Of course, it would be very exciting and helpful if you would want to join our walk team. Information is also at this link:

http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR/Walk-IN/Chapter-IndianaState4195?px=1434058&pg=personal&fr_id=1900

We are hoping to do well for Nora’s team this year.  Thanks for your time in reading this. You are part of the cure.

http://www2.jdrf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=walk_homepage

Sincerely,
Andy Blythe,
Nora’s Crocodile Rockers, 2012

On Beauty, Part 2

Moreso than anything else I have published here, friends have asked me about my post, "For the Love of Beautiful Women".  I am very pleased that this piece of exploration into beauty has gained some attention.  I suspect it means that I have written about something important to people.  Today, partially because of a request by one of my friends in the twitterverse, I revisit the topic of beauty.

Beauty resonates.  Its source is somewhere from within the person, in the realm of the spirit.  We all are endowed with beauty.  Some people have allowed the pain of living to dominate them so that the resonance of their beauty cannot be felt.  Pain, when it receives energy and attention from you, becomes strong and prominent.  Many people wear their pain in masks of anger, apathy, disdain, or detachment.  It is hard to see their beauty through the masks and walls.  Pain comes to us all.  It is the beautiful spirit who gives the pain no more attention than a stone in her shoe.  A momentary pause, a cleansing breath, and then it's released.

I know there are many who believe there is beauty in suffering.  There is truth in that.  What people see in the victim, or rather, feel from her, is a desire to save her from the pain, to lead her to comfort.  Through this desire we may sincerely be trying to connect with the other person, but it may also be an end to itself.  Some of us realize that we are attracted to "damaged" people, those we wish to rescue or fix.  What happens, then, once there is a return to calm and normalcy?  The next suffering friend suddenly seems so much more attractive.

True beauty transcends the circumstances, including the flow of time.  You recognize it within your being.  At times of stress and chaos, the presence of beauty calms you.  At times when you have slipped into unawareness and tedium, the beauty awakens you, and reminds you of the present.  When this happens, you feel the wonderful rush of awareness.  You remember your own power and vitality when her beauty resonates with yours.  There is a harmonious energy that is felt, quite real, which cannot be denied. This is the kind of beauty that should be pursued and nurtured.  This is where love may be found.

Beauty manifests itself in the outer person in countless ways.  The body, in all of its wonderful variations, houses, protects, and projects the inner beauty of the spirit.  If you are aware enough to see, there she will be; ageless, radiant, and lovely.  She may be concerned by superfluous facets of life or age, but you, if you are seeing clearly, will see truth.

Beauty is all around.  Where there is life, so also lives beauty.

Eleven Rules That School Doesn't Teach

First I should say this is not original, and I can't site an author. I have, however, made a few updates to it along the way. This applies to people of any age, but it was intended for the students.

Eleven Rules That School Doesn't Teach

Rule 1- Life is not fair; get used to it.

Rule 2- The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3- You will not make a six-figure salary right out of high school. You'll need to earn your way to the top.

Rule 4- If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you have a boss.

Rule 5- Flipping burgers is not beneath you. Your grandparents had a different name for flipping burgers. They called it opportunity.

Rule 6- If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

Rule 7- Before you were born your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how much you know. So before you save the rainforests from the parasites of your parents' generation, try doing a fair share of the housework.

Rule 8- Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.

Rule 9- Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off.

Rule 10- Television and social media are not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop, temporarily put their phones down, and go to jobs that require some focus and attention.

Rule 11- Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. And if you happen to be quite smart, don't you dare hide it or pretend you're not. I'm sure some reader could add many more. It's nothing but a few conversation starters for those not yet familiar with the rude realities out there.

All good things....

Social Media, Therapy, and Moving Forward

I have not written a blog in a long while. I have not been able to focus on writing anything more than a sentence or two in length. The condition, if it has a name, led me to certain social media accounts, namely Twitter. This seemingly innocuous creation has helped me in ways that I never would have suspected.

As I have learned to walk forward, perhaps more than ever, I also learned to accept others and to be expressive again. By diving into the sea of human dysfunction, I learned that normal is a far more inclusive construct than I allowed for in the past. We all seem to be healing from something. We all seem to be looking for similar essential comforts and truths.

Among the profane, vulgar, gratuitously shocking, and brash, there are also the clever, witty, touching, gracious, vulnerable, and wise. I would not have stayed long at a real life (RL on Twitter) party if everyone were throwing out their thoughts and feelings uncensored for all to hear. It would be like a crazy passing period in a high school hallway.  But now that I've been there, virtually at least, for a while, I like it.

 As for real life, happiness comes when you can appreciate the beauty of the moments. It's much easier to do that when you have a group of people enjoying their moments, too, and are willing to share their joys. I have found friends in places near and far. From Netherlands to Australia,and California to Florida, such places are home to the wonderful people who have given me little postcards of humanity that serve as reminders of the goodness in us all. Thanks, new friends. I appreciate it.

All good things....

Nora's Crocodile Walkers in 2011

Dear Family, Friends, Loved Ones, and Colleagues,

I am asking for your help. Asking for nothing would be my fondest wish right now, but I simply can’t abide my life if I have not made efforts to help my own family. I hope you can offer some kind of financial support to bolster the great research happening today which is bringing a cure for diabetes a bit closer. For those who are interested to know more, please read on. I have tried to help someone on the outside of the problem appreciate a bit of the reality of life with diabetes.

Eight years ago our family experienced a profound transformation. We became a family with a type 1 diabetic child. Our first child, Eleanor, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while she was still only two. Each day since then, each hour, has included some chore, task, reference, thought, or responsibility demanded of us by diabetes. Please do not think of this as an exaggeration, because if I err, it will be in making the demands less pressing than what they are.

And so we live. We focus on life with as much positive energy as we can. Nora does an excellent job of accepting her circumstances on most days. The rest of us do as well. Blood sugar checks number into the multi-thousands that have been endured so far. Daily shots have given way to the self enclosed delivery device called an OmniPod. This device still has to be monitored, though, and changed no less than every three days. This involves having a spring loaded needle inject the delivery line under the skin. It hurts. The insulin that we have put into the pod then gets gradually delivered into the blood as programming suggests. Who programs it? We do. The programming is based on experience and ever-changing needs of the user. Nothing is automatic; not really.

And so we plan. After eight years we are getting pretty proficient with our knowledge of food and its various carbohydrate counts. Nora gives herself more insulin, called a bolus, whenever she eats. This is based on the carbohydrates in the food. Again, formulas are used, but life is inexact. We still practice a refined form of guess work when needed. When the birthday parties, sleepovers, field trips, celebration dinners, etc. arise, we try our best to plan for it, or at least react well to what is being offered. Nora is growing and changing, and her insulin demands continue to change accordingly. She recently completed a kids’ triathlon, proving that her limits are still far on the horizon.

And we educate. Nora is older, and we all are slightly wiser. Still we find ourselves dealing frequently with misconceptions and ignorance about diabetes. Since Nora’s pod is sometimes visible she gets asked about it. She explains the situation quite well, but I wonder when she might get sick of saying it all. Well meaning people, both family and friends alike, still make comments that amaze me. Recently we were asked again if it is OK for Nora to have chocolate. I have heard someone telling another that she is not allowed to eat sugar. Others persist in these outdated assumptions that come from times when diabetes was not understood well, and its management tools were severely limited.

And we hope. Our lives are woven with the demands of type 1 diabetes. But the reason we ask for help and support is because we hope for a day when we can let go of that part of life. We hope to leave behind our diabetic lifestyle one day soon. Please help us to reach that important goal.

We are walking again this year on October 29th at Military Park, Indianapolis. The Walk for a Cure is a great day to bring together hundreds of people in one place to support JDRF and its efforts fund research. If you wish to donate, you can do so online by following the links I have listed below. You may also write a check payable to JDRF. Any size of donation is useful and appreciated, and all are tax deductible.

Please visit my walk fundraising page at the following link. This will allow you to make an online donation if you should choose to do so. Of course, it would be very exciting and helpful if you would want to join our walk team. Information is also at this link:

http://www2.jdrf.org/site/TR/Walk-IN/Chapter-IndianaState4195?team_id=24644&pg=team&fr_id=1486

We are hoping to do well for Nora’s team this year, just as my wife Lisa’s cycling team efforts have been such a huge success, thanks to the generosity of others. Thanks for your time in reading this. You are part of the cure.

Sincerely,
Andy Blythe,
Nora’s Crocodile Rockers, Team Captain


For further information, here are some truths that you should remember…
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting every organ system. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that enables people to get energy from food. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood, and lasts a lifetime. Just to survive, people with type 1 diabetes must take multiple injections of insulin daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which a person's body still produces insulin but is unable to use it effectively. Type 2 is usually diagnosed in adulthood and does not always require insulin injections. However, increased obesity has led to a recent rise in cases of type 2 diabetes in children and young adults.

Taking insulin does not cure any type of diabetes, nor does it prevent the possibility of the disease's devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack, stroke, and pregnancy complications.

The Scope of Diabetes
• Nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes (7.8 percent of the population):
Diagnosed: 17.9 million
Undiagnosed: 5.7 million
• As many as three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes.
• Diabetes currently affects 285 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 435 million by 2030.
• In the U.S., a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds; more than 1.6 million people are diagnosed each year.

The Cost of Diabetes
• Diabetes is one of the costliest chronic diseases.
• In 2007, diabetes accounted for $174 billion in health care costs in the U.S.
• Diabetes accounts for 32 percent of all Medicare expenditures.
• The nation spent $11,744 annually on each person with diabetes in 2007 compared to $2,935 on each person without diabetes.
• Americans with diabetes incur medical expenses that are approximately 2.3 times higher than those incurred by Americans without diabetes.
• U.S. hospital stays related to diabetes totaled $58.3 billion in 2007.
• An estimated 22 percent of hospital inpatient days in the U.S. were incurred by people with diabetes in 2007.

The Harm Caused by Diabetes
Damage to Many Organ Systems: Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and non-traumatic amputations. It is also a leading cause of nerve damage.

Increased Heart Disease Risk: People with diabetes are two-to-four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people without the disease.

Shortened Life: Diabetes kills one American every three minutes and is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. Life expectancy for people with diabetes has historically been shortened by an average of seven to 10 years, and the risk of death for people with diabetes is about double that of people of similar age without diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes, 2004; KRC Research for JDRF, Jan. 2005

For more information, visit the JDRF web site at http://www.jdrf.org/ or call 800-533-CURE.

For the love of beautiful women.

I don't know when I learned about beautiful women. Like most boys, I suppose it must have started with my mother, who, as you may assume, is a beautiful woman. She is crippled now in multiple ways from illnesses including rheumatoid arthritis. Her mobility is so limited that her hair is nothing but a matted nest of tangles that will probably have to be cut free and left to grow again. But through all of this pain and loss of her former self, my mother has retained the essence of her beauty. She still can and does express her love for me and my children, for a dog, or perhaps a fallen bird. She loves still. And this capacity to love is the source of beauty.

I have met many beautiful women who have the sort of socially coveted beauty paraded across media outlets like an incessant pageant with rotating princesses. Their beauty often becomes tarnished as soon as the first conversation begins. From their beautiful mouths and betwixt their luminous, equine teeth what should issue forth? Insecurities, defensive and offensive darts and barbs, vulgarities and cruelties, elitism, racism, any of the contemptible isms. What is there to gain from speaking further with such a woman? There are enough people in any life who will worm their way into your circles, people you never invited, yet people still who become necessarily linked with you. Why would any sane person choose to add another of their ilk into the pack? When a woman churns poison and sprays it out through her mouth, her beauty loses all of its magic.

There are many beautiful women in the world. This is the great part of the message. They are married and single. They are born of all races and from all countries. Culture, heritage, orientations- all are introduced and accentuated by her true beauty. They are women whose spirits deliver bursts of love and energy like the morning light filtered through a sun catcher. Women such as these aren't trying to impress yet still their beauty is compelling.

Believe in this. It is real, this beauty that women possess. It is not so rare as you might imagine. This kind of beauty will be found where there is kindness and sincere laughter. Where there is compassion, caring, and joy for life, there, too, lives this beauty.

Don't take me to mean that I believe in flawless and shimmering beings. The spirit is so, but the lives we lead are far from flawless. Women who are beautiful can drink and be inked. They can be pierced and fierce. The beauty of the spirit illuminates the visible stage production that the world is allowed to see.

To any who read this, I hope you know the truth contained in this little rambling. You beautiful women in my life, thank you for being you. To those I have yet to meet, I hope you have someone like me who can see your true nature and be knocked happily breathless whenever you enter the room.