Pies from scratch

I probably buy bananas 2-4 times a week. I like to start my day with a banana and a capuccino, and I often snack on another banana or two during the course of the day. I ran out of bananas last Wednesday, with no chance to get to my local store. Kate G presented me with a bunch, unasked, when she picked me up for my PET scan on Thursday.

So my day today began with a banana from dear Kate. It continued with an offer from my cousin Sarah to help me manage interactions with the insurance company. She has had a lot of experience sorting out claims associated with her son Rob's long illness. Sarah is not the only person to have offered help with this. Three others have come forward, including my graduate school roommate in Kansas City. Now a fourth--I just got off the phone with my cousin Noreen, who also volunteered for the insurance committee. Noreen's son John has had multiple health problems since birth, and Noreen has done a superb job managing his care and his insurance claims.

Today, at the suggestion and in the company of a new friend, Laura S, I visited Gilda's Club-Chicago and decided to become a member. One issue that has concerned me is how to manage the 40+ people who have volunteered to help me as I go through treatment. If we can't figure it out ourselves, Gilda's staff can help us get organized. They also have a monthly networking meeting for people living with lung cancer.

As I look around my house, I see art, books, food, clothes, music and more from loved ones near and far, alive and dead. My life and yours are intertwined in ways known and unknown with billions of other lives. I couldn't write this blog without countless teachers, without the people who mined the uranium that powers the plant that provides the electricity that sends the data, without the immigrant labor that built my apartment, the people who work at the phone company -- you get the idea. As a friend observed recently: "If you want to bake a pie from scratch, first create the universe."