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Inch by Inch

The three-year-olds were singing “up like a rocket, down like the rain, ‘round and ‘round like a choo-choo train” to demonstrate how well they could hold their bows to their pint-size violins. Staying home with Nick, it was my husband who enjoyed the distinct privilege of reveling, firsthand, in these toddler’s first steps. I only got the post-recital smile—the one I always get when I think about the tiniest musicians among us—as I listened to the complete run-down of their afternoon in Westport. We’d been through that drill four times. The “taca-taca-stop-stop” rhythms on the A-and E-strings; the “Mississippi is a River”; and enough Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’s to practically send us orbiting around them. I’m the first to admit: after the fourth kid got through the “twinkles” I honestly thought that if I never heard that song again, it would be just fine by me.

But then in talking about the recital over the first dinner we’ve shared alone during the past three weeks, I couldn’t help but romanticize the whole process. As I reflected back on the past thirteen years of violin lessons, I thought about those first recital pieces, about dressing up Cristina in hand-smocked dresses with white tights and black patent leather shoes, and about the first time two of them played Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins onstage one Mother’s Day. Yesterday, just as my daughter got on stage to perform, the school director gave a couple minute speech of encouragement for the other parents. For those with babes barely “twinkling” needed to understand that, before long, they too would witness mastery up close and personal. If only they could stick with it long enough…..

Sticking with anything is hard enough. In this harried world of ours, where emails have replaced handwritten letters; “IM” has replaced leisurely phone chats; and digital pix sent over the internet have replaced personal visits: it’s no wonder that few of us have the patience for mastery. For enduring the day-to-day until the picture is 100% complete. During this time in which we find ourselves, business—and life—moves at the speed of thought. And we can hardly wait for that thought to be finished so we can move on to the next one. (Ever catch yourself finishing someone else’s sentence?)

We’re great starters, each one of us. Because starting something only requires that we overcome the law of inertia, (and maybe a dollop of temptation, too). Getting our bottoms off the sofa and over to the art studio to paint or our legs off the footstool and over to the treadmill to run both require overcoming inertia and the temptation of relaxing with too much TV. Finishing the after-school cupcake so as to pull the violin out of the case not only requires overcoming inertia; it requires serious discipline as well. But each act is far easier than incorporating it into your everyday reality. Indeed, going from the first piece in a music book to a full-fledged concerto is a different thing entirely. (As is going from a beginning painter to one who exhibits at galleries or a soft, overweight couch-sitter to a hard-bodied athlete who enjoys both physical strength and aerobic endurance.)

When I reveled today in hearing my daughter perform a drop-dead gorgeous movement from a concerto by Handel (in a post-recital private concert just for me), I was caught off-guard by its parallel to the roughly three-year endurance battle that our son is facing now with leukemia. As my daughter is sailing through mastery, I couldn’t help but think of all the violin battles we’ve had over the years when she was barely taking those first steps of musicianship. Of hating to practice, of hating to play scales, of hating those nasty etudes. The eyeball-rolling, the door-slamming, and the stomping of the feet on each step up the hardwood staircase. And yet here we were, enjoying the fruits of all of those days of practice. It was a goose bump moment that could not be denied. It was proof-positive that mastery comes in inches, and not in miles. And it was a lesson to me that battles of health, or catastrophe, or financial hardships are not fought three years out. They’re fought inch by inch.

It was my girlfriend, Lisa, who sent me the “inch by inch is a cinch” line. She met me with it when I needed to hear it the most. She met me with it when I was trying to mush three years of chemotherapy treatments into one day. When I was trying to calculate the math of a three-year chemo roadmap with high school graduation and the first two years of college away from home. Of three years of immune suppression with three other kids and an airplane-traveling husband during flu season. And of six months of long drives to the out-of-town clinic with New England snowstorms.

Yet I must claim “inch by inch” these days. I claim it when Nick’s hematologist lays out the day’s plan. I claimed it on Friday when we were sent back to the hospital for the day and another overnight stay. And I even got Dr. Joe claiming it with me. Together, we agree to not worry about what next week—or next year—will bring; it’s simply too much to think about. We agree to tackle the battle inch by inch.

Whatever your personal struggle or your present-day worry: adopt an “inch by inch is a cinch” plan of positive action. As I’ve said often: just ask yourself at the end of each day: “Did I move forward?” And if you did—even by an inch—you can sleep soundly in the assurance that you will triumph in this journey of life. One day not far from now, inch by inch, you’ll celebrate mastery. You’ll celebrate wholeness. You’ll celebrate complete healing.

A Comment on Asbestos Legislation

The Proposed Legislation, Senate Bill S. 852, in Washington, D.C., is under-funded, unfair, unworkable and unconstitutional.

While legislation proposed in Washington, D.C., by Pennsylvania Senator, Arlen Specter, on its face seems to allay many issues regarding litigation over asbestos-related disease, the Asbestos Bill actually raises impossible hurdles for victims and bails out politically well-connected corporations.

Senator Specter acknowledges that he can't pass a 'perfect' bill, but offers little solace to the mesothelioma victims who'll die before they see any help from the fundamentally flawed asbestos bailout bill approved by the Judiciary Committee.

Every major asbestos victims' organization opposes this bill, while being supported by the corporate defendants who knowingly poisoned their workers and the public with asbestos and would receive billions of dollars in liability relief.

A few of the fundamental problems with the fund include:

• The fund is under-funded by at least $16 billion (according to the CBO) and possibly as much as $49 billion (analysis by asbestos claims expert Mark Peterson) or even $100 billion (Environmental Working Group). Bankruptcy of the fund and taxpayer bailout is likely.
• Every single similar government trust fund has failed.
• In its current form the fund will immediately be mired in litigation from existing asbestos trusts, insurance companies, small businesses, and the thousands of victims unfairly excluded from the fund.
• By moving all pending claims into the fund, the fund is guaranteed to have a huge backlog at startup.
• Victims with community exposure and 9/11 victims - even firefighters, police, and emergency workers - are barred from receiving any compensation. The disparity between their treatment and the treatment of similar victims in Libby, Montana is likely unconstitutional.
• There is no real sunset process for victims to return to the courts when the fund becomes bankrupt.
• While treating unfairly or shutting out those poisoned by asbestos, the companies that poisoned them are rewarded with a multi-billion dollar bailout.

  Proposed Asbestos Bailout Bill is Taking Away Veterans' Rights

  In addition to being unfair to victims of asbestos disease, the Asbestos Bill is similarly bad for veterans. Thousands of veterans across this country do not support this bill.

  Veterans, like all Americans, have always had the right to go to court to hold accountable the companies that knowingly poisoned them. Historically, they have been able to receive court-approved compensation to cope with the devastating health and financial consequences of asbestos-related diseases. Now, asbestos companies, their insurers and some Senators want to take that right away with a bill that shortchanges asbestos victims and rewards companies that poisoned them.

  The asbestos bill terminates the legal rights of all current and future asbestos victims and forces them into an untested national trust fund bureaucracy that would be under-funded by at least $40 billion. The bill would delay financial relief to veterans and other asbestos victims by up to nine years - time many dying asbestos victims just don't have.

  Under the proposed bill, many veterans with asbestos-related diseases will not qualify for any compensation at all. Very few veterans are likely to meet the five and ten year cumulative exposure requirements under the bill because they will not have been in the service long enough to qualify.

  The bill bails out the very asbestos and insurance companies that knowingly exposed veterans to asbestos.

  Action You Can Take

  While the Asbestos Bill is unfair and serves to limit rights and remedies of victims in favor of multi-billion dollar corporations, you can take action to help defeat this bill. Please call your Senators and Congressional Representatives and let them know that you oppose this bill.

Thyroid Disease

Swelling in the neck is the most visible form of thyroid disease. Lack of iodine in the diet affects the thyroid gland and leads to swollen necks known as goiter. Located in the neck, thyroid is an endocrine gland that produces essential hormones. Thyroxine is the main hormone produced and iodine plays a chief role in its production. It regulates the rate of metabolism and influences the growth and rate of function of other systems. Children with thyroid hormone deficiency often have stunt growth and impaired brain.

Under activity of the thyroid called hypothyroidism and over activity called hyperthyroidism are the main thyroid diseases. Tumor is another major disease affecting the thyroid.

Iodine deficiency is the main cause of goiter. Hashimoto's thyroiditis is another major thyroid disease. In this disease, the antibodies in the body fight the cells of the thyroid. It is hereditary and is found more common in women. Deficiency of thyroxine at the time of birth also leads to goiter. If not detected in the initial stage, it can lead to permanent mental retardation. Inflammation of thyroid gland is another common thyroid disease. It often develops into several other complications.

Inadequate production of thyroid hormone is the chief cause of hypothyroidism. Symptoms associated with hypothyroidism are sometimes misleading and are mistaken for other diseases. If not diagnosed early the effect of hypothyroidism can be quite serious. Stunt physical and mental growth called cretinism is a major disease caused due to hypothyroidism.

Excess production of thyroid hormone leads to hyperthyroidism. Grave’s disease, a form of thyroiditis, is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. Also referred as Graves-Basedow disease, it is found mainly in middle-aged women. Hurthle cell adenoma, or thyroid adenoma, is another thyroid disease. The Hurthle cell is a large cell and it stains pink. Plummer’s disease, a form of goiter, is another commonly occurring thyroid disease.

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