Life, The Universe & Everything

Well, it’s been a while. It seems like the last time I actually published a post was just under 11 years ago! It probably doesn’t mean much because I don’t think anybody reads this blog anyway!

At any rate I’ve unearthed it now as I’m heading off to the US for 3 weeks. And as much as I’m usually bad at keeping a record of my trips the snippets that I do have always make for enjoyable reading and reminiscing. So the plan is for me to record my travels here, how frequently and how often remains to be seen.

At the moment, we’re at 34.985ft, flying 835km/h and heading for Sydney. From there, I’ll be boarding a flight to Los Angeles, but I won’t have internet then so I’m making the most of Qantas WiFi now. (For those interested in tech you’ll get alight to know that the ping of my connection is 962ms!)

COVID has obviously kept me out of the air for a while and as much as I’ve been keen to travel internationally I haven’t really had a way to make it happen til now. I am looking forward to flying on an A380 – my first super jumbo since I was on a 747-400 about 25 years ago when my family went to Germany & Switzerland. I was hoping to use my point to upgrade to business which unfortunately didn’t come through, but I did manage to upgrade to premium economy so that should be reasonable on the longer flight.

Once I land in LA, I stay the night, then fly across to New York stay the night again and from there hire a car and drive up to UMass Amherst. That’s where my first event and primary reason for going will happen – Future Problem Solving International Conference 2022. This post has been surprisingly long so I think I’ll leave it there. Maybe shorter, more frequent posts may be the way to go…

Looks can be deceiving. I doubt this phrase will spark much argument (and if it does, then it’s a different discussion!)

Coping does not mean it’s easy is an example of a situation where looks can be deceiving,

The initial response to ‘coping does not mean it’s easy’ may well be ‘well duh’. But if I pointed to somebody on the street who wasn’t bawling in tears, and wasn’t jumping for joy and asked is that person coping or is their life easy at the moment could you tell me?

Obviously this is a slightly broad and unrealistic scenario, but I think it helps to illustrate my point.

My point is, (and for those who currently know my personal circumstances I am not having a go at anybody) if people seem outwardly like they are going OK, yet you know things are going on in their life, don’t assume they are finding it easy.

This is my personal experience, and maybe it’s just me, but I suspect others would tell you the same.

I think there are three broad categories, people aren’t coping (this is usually obvious), people are coping (but you can clearly tell that they are just coping), people are coping (but if you met them in the street and hadn’t seen them for a while you would assume everything is normal).

It is the last category I’m discussing, but it’s not the person in the street who I’m highlighting. Rather it’s the person who knows they are going though a difficult time but assumes, because of there general behaviour it is all good.

I’m not saying it’s easy to tell, but I am saying if you know somebody is going through a rough time, it doesn’t hurt to ask how they’re going.

Thank you to those who have. Those who haven’t, please don’t feel attacked, I imagine I would have (and probably sometimes still do) acted the same had I not had personal experiences that has brought this to my attention.

So here I am, sitting in an apartment in Sydney. We weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow and then only briefly as a stopover on the way to the US. But, things don’t always go according to plan. Things that you would never expect happen,

The last two and a half weeks have been somewhat of a blur, surrounded by a lot of uncertainty which extended to a few days earlier.

I know it is said that three degrees of separation applies to cancer, but really, both parents, a grandparent and an aunt? And that is just the direct blood relations.

So yes, I guess the last 2.5 weeks have been rough, since Mum’s apparently innocent eye problem resolved itself into a diagnosis of cancer. Tumours in both lungs, the liver, possible the kidney and two in the brain.

Currently, everything is a bit uncertain, but thanks to my cousin in Sydney and her links we have seen an excellent surgeon and one of the brain tumours has been successfully removed and Mum is recovering from the surgery well.

Where to from here? – We are still unsure, it is very much a day at a time at the moment.

Staying positive.

God is good – always. (Edit – and as I was reminded at church this morning, our source of strength)

Rom 5:3-5