Friday, October 14, 2011

Friday, October 14, 2011

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2004. We took Mattie that weekend to a fall festival where he got to pick pumpkins, go on hayrides, and slide down incredibly long slides. As you can see here, Mattie wasn't always thrilled with my picture taking, but he put up with me. When we took Mattie to his first fall festival, I wasn't sure if he would like it at all since they were usually crowded and noisy. For the most part he wasn't wild about the noise or the people, but he did love the slides and rides! Mattie was a cautious child, and yet he also had an adventuresome side, and if Peter was willing to sign up to go with him on slides and roller coasters, then he was happy to tag right along and experience the thrill with him.


Quote of the day: We owe respect to the living. To the dead we owe only truth. ~ Voltaire

As promised, the question of the day is....................................................
Have you voted for Tricia (Mattie's nurse) today?
(Remember you can vote ONCE every 24 hours!!!)

For more information about the Johnson and Johnson Amazing Nurse Contest, please read my September 28, 2011 blog posting. Your daily vote is important and will bring Tricia closer to becoming a finalist.

Click on this link to vote for Patricia Grusholt: http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/157336/voteable_entries


My dad sent me tonight's quote in August. When I received the quote I thought it was interesting, but I wasn't ready to post it yet. Some times quotes intrigue me but they don't always speak to me or capture the feelings I am after on a particular day. So now two months later, as I came across this quote, it seemed appropriate. In many ways, this is a complex quote. Because if we owe respect to the living and truth to the dead, then does that mean while respecting the living we aren't forthcoming with the truth? Naturally some times when we care about others and love them, it is hard to tell them the truth. The truth can lead to hurt feelings, miscommunications, and at times distance between people. So respect and truth are powerful words and really not always easy to embrace together.

I would tend to think that many of us believe we should "respect" the memory of a loved one who has died. In many ways, I feel that Voltaire's quote is being operationalized in Mattie's blog. The blog has detailed the life of a little boy while he was alive, and now that he is dead. It covers pages and pages of Mattie's bravery and heartache as he fought cancer, and in the process I have a feeling my readers (whether you knew Mattie or not) grew to love and respect him. Now in Mattie's death, the respect most likely remains, but the lessons learned each day are not necessarily depicting respect as much as truth. The truth about the brilliance of a little boy who was the center of his parent's universe and naturally the truth associated with the pain of such a loss. The blog is about respect and the truth, and I appreciate so many of you who visit it daily to listen to the stories, to the ups and downs, and to continue on in this journey with us. If that doesn't speak volumes about the respect and admiration we all have for Mattie, I am not sure what else does.

Peter let me know that in total he picked up 7 pennies from the ground today. He just found them while walking! As my faithful readers know, Mattie loved collecting pennies and basically all loose change in general. My parents started a "penny fairy" tradition with Mattie. They would leave pennies lying around the house and when Mattie would find them, my parents would tell Mattie that he was visited by the penny fairy. Mattie loved the penny fairy. So naturally whenever Peter and I come across a penny now, our first thoughts are of Mattie. Perhaps for us, Mattie is now our penny fairy, and sending us messages through the copper colored coins we find. Either case, the messages were strong and loud for Peter today, and the fact that he found seven pennies, one for each of Mattie's years on this earth, seems symbolic.

Tonight, our complex is shutting off the electricity for five hours. The beauty of where we live is we NEVER have power outages. Ever! Or at least not during the 15 years we have lived here. So when they shut the system off once a year to do maintanence and other checks, I learn to deal with it. However, knowing we have to be without electricity is an adjustment, especially when it involves my computer.