You can imagine the thoughts which come rushing to your mind when the doc looks you in the eye and tells you your illness is incurable. This happened to me in 2009 when I was diagnosed with ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or in layman's terms, scarring of the lung tissue which can't be reversed and is continuing to scar more tissue. Suddenly your own mortality is staring you in the face, and you see life through a different values filter.
That the Broncos are in a losing streak or the school district is in dire financial straits go rapidly into the file marked "Somebody else's problems". Your high priorities now include getting the ten year old will updated and preparing a "survivor's guide" for your wife. Where the heck did I put those life insurance policies? Does she know how to sign on to the bank accounts on the internet? (What's your mother's maiden name? Your favorite food? What street did you grow up on? etc.)
Preparation of a bucket list is inevitable, but with oxygen required 24/7 traveling seems a burden so the bucket list doesn't include much of that. Plus, with guys putting bombs in their underwear and standing in long security lines doesn't increase the travel desire at all.
One bucket list item which I can now happily cross off is re-establishing communications with a number of men and women I worked with during my twenty-nine years at Landmark Communications and a subsidiary called The Weather Channel.
My son, Shepherd, had taken a nice picture of Dee Dee and me at our place in Frisco, Colorado, last summer. We had that made into a Christmas card and I wrote a letter to send with it. The letter thanked the recipients for their friendship over the years, something I wanted to do while I was still lucid. Regrettably, I have missed a few opportunities to do this, and the regret never goes away.
I received nice notes from several Landmark and TWC people, including Dick Barry, Lem Lewis, Robin Saul, Larry Coffey, Peggy Patrick, Aliene Hodges, Dick Roberts, Gordon Herring, Nick Worth, Barney Oldfield, and a number of old Weather Channel friends - Becky Ruthven, Brenda Resneck Loughery, Kathy Lane, Charlene Carl, Mimi Stamper, Lisa Krechting, Leslie Crawford, Alan Galumback, Mike Lerner - I'm sure I'm not thinking of some other names here.
Hearing from these former co-workers after a long absence gladdened my heart more than I can say. Passage of time and thoughts about mortality had helped me to narrow the really important things in life down to three - my relationship with God, family and friends. When you get down to where the rubber meets the road, those relationships are really all that matter in life.
I concentrate on my working relationships because of a line in a movie called "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gherig, the Yankee first baseman who died of ALS, sometimes called Lou Gherig disease. In his last appearance at Yankee stadium, Lou made a brief talk to the fans over the stadium loudspeaker. He ended his remarks with this sentence: "I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth". I had seen the movie a number of times and heard the remark, but I never really understood or "got it" until I saw the movie last December.
I realized I was now, with my disease, paralelling Lou's situation. As I thought about the number of many blessings God has poured on me during my life, this time I "got" Lou's remark. For the first time I felt like I understood how it feels to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth. That is exactly the way I feel.
There are a number of spiritual and family blessings I could mention, but, for some reason, my career with Landmark Communications, owned by Frank Batten and his family, gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. Frank Batten insisted on his employees have high moral standards, a strong work ethic and good values which included treating customers and employeees with respect and dignity. Consequently, the type of people I got to work with - those mentoned above and many others not mentioned - during my twenty-nine years were of the highest caliber. We truly were proud of being associated with Landmark and enjoyed working with each other. I was lucky enough to get the job of startup general manager of The Weather Channel, and the ten years I spent there were truly the highlight of my career, mainly due to the people who's hard work and determination helped build something which has bettered society over the years since we turned on the signal in 1982. I thank God almost everyday for guiding me to Landmark and for my relationships developed there - especially when I see what corporate life is today.
I have much more to say about mortality, especially from a spiritual viewpoint, in another blog.
Blessings,
Hugh Eaton
Palmer Lake, CO
Copyright Hugh Eaton 2010
That the Broncos are in a losing streak or the school district is in dire financial straits go rapidly into the file marked "Somebody else's problems". Your high priorities now include getting the ten year old will updated and preparing a "survivor's guide" for your wife. Where the heck did I put those life insurance policies? Does she know how to sign on to the bank accounts on the internet? (What's your mother's maiden name? Your favorite food? What street did you grow up on? etc.)
Preparation of a bucket list is inevitable, but with oxygen required 24/7 traveling seems a burden so the bucket list doesn't include much of that. Plus, with guys putting bombs in their underwear and standing in long security lines doesn't increase the travel desire at all.
One bucket list item which I can now happily cross off is re-establishing communications with a number of men and women I worked with during my twenty-nine years at Landmark Communications and a subsidiary called The Weather Channel.
My son, Shepherd, had taken a nice picture of Dee Dee and me at our place in Frisco, Colorado, last summer. We had that made into a Christmas card and I wrote a letter to send with it. The letter thanked the recipients for their friendship over the years, something I wanted to do while I was still lucid. Regrettably, I have missed a few opportunities to do this, and the regret never goes away.
I received nice notes from several Landmark and TWC people, including Dick Barry, Lem Lewis, Robin Saul, Larry Coffey, Peggy Patrick, Aliene Hodges, Dick Roberts, Gordon Herring, Nick Worth, Barney Oldfield, and a number of old Weather Channel friends - Becky Ruthven, Brenda Resneck Loughery, Kathy Lane, Charlene Carl, Mimi Stamper, Lisa Krechting, Leslie Crawford, Alan Galumback, Mike Lerner - I'm sure I'm not thinking of some other names here.
Hearing from these former co-workers after a long absence gladdened my heart more than I can say. Passage of time and thoughts about mortality had helped me to narrow the really important things in life down to three - my relationship with God, family and friends. When you get down to where the rubber meets the road, those relationships are really all that matter in life.
I concentrate on my working relationships because of a line in a movie called "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gherig, the Yankee first baseman who died of ALS, sometimes called Lou Gherig disease. In his last appearance at Yankee stadium, Lou made a brief talk to the fans over the stadium loudspeaker. He ended his remarks with this sentence: "I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth". I had seen the movie a number of times and heard the remark, but I never really understood or "got it" until I saw the movie last December.
I realized I was now, with my disease, paralelling Lou's situation. As I thought about the number of many blessings God has poured on me during my life, this time I "got" Lou's remark. For the first time I felt like I understood how it feels to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth. That is exactly the way I feel.
There are a number of spiritual and family blessings I could mention, but, for some reason, my career with Landmark Communications, owned by Frank Batten and his family, gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. Frank Batten insisted on his employees have high moral standards, a strong work ethic and good values which included treating customers and employeees with respect and dignity. Consequently, the type of people I got to work with - those mentoned above and many others not mentioned - during my twenty-nine years were of the highest caliber. We truly were proud of being associated with Landmark and enjoyed working with each other. I was lucky enough to get the job of startup general manager of The Weather Channel, and the ten years I spent there were truly the highlight of my career, mainly due to the people who's hard work and determination helped build something which has bettered society over the years since we turned on the signal in 1982. I thank God almost everyday for guiding me to Landmark and for my relationships developed there - especially when I see what corporate life is today.
I have much more to say about mortality, especially from a spiritual viewpoint, in another blog.
Blessings,
Hugh Eaton
Palmer Lake, CO
Copyright Hugh Eaton 2010
Labels: Thoughts about mortality
posted by easynan | 10:16 AM
1 Comments:
Hugh,
As I have told you before, THANK YOU for 'opening the Landmark door of opportunity' for me; I've enjoyed 30+ years and still plugging away. One of God's blessings, to me, was when you came to Chapel Hill in the spring of 1978. We Roanoke guys have done okay. Keep smiling & stay positive.
Robin Saul
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