WOW

Sometimes you have this little moment where the world reaches out and lets you know that the world is bigger than just you. That we affect each other.

So many of you kindly prayed, commented to and thought nice thoughts for my mom after I requested prayers for her and her upcoming surgery... I have been worried about her since she's one of those people (sooooo unlike me) who puts on a brave face and smiles to the world even when she's miserable. I know she's scared of her surgery tomorrow and in a way that only comes from having been there before and at the same time not knowing exactly what she'll face.

I used to email my mom links to a funny blog. Now my mom LOVES the blog Dad Gone Mad. I mean in a way that's obsessive. She reads his blog before mine each day (well - of course - so do hundreds of people - but she's my MOM!!! I should be first. I mean there could be pictures of her grandspawn for goodness sakes!!) and it's a frequent topic of emails and conversations. "Did you read DGM today?" When they went up to the lake for a month and she was without internet - she would drive up to get a cell signal and ask me about his posts. Seriously.

So - in an effort to lift her spirits and make her smile - I emailed Danny and asked him to email my mom. The whole time I was writing this email to him I thought to myself,

"I hope he'll email her" "I'm sure he has people bugging him all the time for these things" "I wonder if he even reads his blog email" "I hope he doesn't laugh at this" "He'll be too busy to do this" ... (Now - I know he's a great guy - anyone who reads his blog knows that. His Project Lovebomb is just one example of how cool he, his hot wife and his wondersis are. BUT - he's famous. Ok - so he's not on the cover of People magazine yet - but just about everyone I know reads him... so my worry and concern about his response had more to do with my self esteem than who he is.)

Within an hour he had responded to her and made her whole day, probably her week, or month. He was funny and compassionate. Ok - he was hilarious! She copied me on her response to him and when we talked on the phone she was almost school girl giddy with delight. My 50+ ish year old mom was estatic. It was wonderful. If ever there was a time she needed it - it was then. Hot Wife even commented on my blog about it. I was a little shocked. I was surprised he'd mention it to someone else.

We've been talking about it ever since. My mom just thinks the world of them. So, me, I love them forever. Take care of a girls mom and you know - you're in for life. They sounded genuinely caring (of course they were - they ARE caring - but once again - that self esteem thing) but I thought that was the end of that. Good deed done... life goes on.

Today DGM posted something that first caught me by surprise, he suffers from depression . Not that it's all that surprising since just about 1/2 the country suffers from some sort of depression (including myself) and the other half probably does but hides it/ignores it, but that he personally does. It always shocks me when someone seemingly well adjusted has clinical depression. It just goes to show that creativity breeds madness. so I was reading along - impressed with his succint way of describing the stigma attached to depression.

Then he posted this: (SORRY DANNY FOR STEALING THIS!!)

"And then there’s this:
Monday morning, a Dad Gone Mad reader wrote to me and told me that her mother is having brain surgery tomorrow. She said her mom is a huge fan of this site and that if I could send her a quick “good luck” e-mail, it would help a lot during some very frightening days. I obliged, of course, telling her to ask for a bag of frozen peas to put on her scar when she gets to the recovery room.

I don’t know that I can even begin to articulate what a request like that means to me or what it does to my soul. How can I wallow? Woe is NOT me. As the old book title says, “Your Blues Ain’t like Mine.”"


WOW WOW WOW. When I asked him for the favor, I thought he'd send off an email and that would be that. It wouldn't mean a whole lot to him - other than a couple of minutes of time composing and responding. But - look. Look at how we all touch each other (and ya'll I'm not talking about a willy nilly world wide orgy). I think often we don't realize how much power we have to affect each other. It never dawned on me that asking him to do such a wonderful thing for my mom would somehow be a wonderful thing for him. Our actions mean something. No matter how small or large, we do have the ability to make things better or worse for others. He made a woman facing something very scary, very happy. I'm also glad that knowing he has the power to do that made him happy.

Thanks Danny (and Hot Wife). Thank you SO much.