So this is Christmas

A few weeks ago, The Smith Compound  reported on the return  of my very own accute myeloid leukemia. (TSC almost always does what I say since I’m the boss here.)

New developments:

While in the hospital for some chemo, I learned I’d come down with pneumonia.

After some  recovery in rhe hospital and more chemo at home, I woke up most mornings feeling much better.

That ended abruptly this week when my day began with coughing so bad and a throat so sore I could not speak.

Mrs. Smith was already up and in another room. I texted her.

Back to my local V.A. hospital. They told me I had RSV. Then pneumonia.

So here we are on Christmas Eve.

God bless us all.

B.J.

Related posts are tagged AML if you’re interested.

#AML #cancer

If this is it

There's nothing like lying
around wondering if this is it,
if all we are is dust in the wind...

...if there's a time to every
purpose under heaven...

...if they will wish you were here.

Some answers, my friends, are blowin' in the wind,
but love's truth is plain to see.

So carry on and know there
will be peace, that mourning
gives way to fine memories.

B.J.

With apologies and thanks to all the musicians who have entertained me for decades.

#writing #writingcommunity

Murder won’t fix U.S. healthcare

Cheering the murder of a CEO and bitching about our crappy healthcare system on social media appears to be way more fun than fixing the system.

Okay, it may not be fun fun, but it’s for sure an easy and popular approach to accomplishing nothing. 

So who is actually working to fix the system? How can we the people help reach that goal without shooting anybody?

Seriously. I want to know.

Significant campaign finance reform is one key to fixing our healthcare system.

What activist groups, nonprofits and/or other organizations are headed in the right direction?

Don’t tell me it’s the Democratic Party. If they were competent at this or interested in a fix, they would have done whatever it took to trash Citizens United by now or kept it from happening in the first place. They could have set and enforced strict limits on all campaign contributions by everyone and made the information public.

Both major parties like big money. Smaller parties don’t hesitate to take big bucks, either.

Significant campaign finance reform is one key to fixing our healthcare system. Another is scrapping the grossly unfair practice of letting the wealthiest among us pay little if any income tax.

If we don’t have the will to stop big money and big-big corporations from buying lawmakers at every level of government, we won’t fix much of anything.

So I ask again: Who is actually working to fix the system?

Please comment if you have an answer, and don’t hesitate to share or reblog this.

B.J.

#democracy #healthCare #healthjustice

One book sold, one special day

A few days ago I was at the St. Mary’s Cancer Center in Grand Junction when the nurse managing my blood transfusion made my day.

She told me someone had bought That time I had cancer… and added it to the bookshelf in the infusion center, just a few feet from where I was sitting.

It turned out the someone is a writer who volunteers there. He also happened to be there that day.

I had the pleasure of meeting him and thanking him for being there and making the book available to others who might learn from it.

It was a moment I will never forget.

Write on, my friends. The rewards can be so much greater than the effort.

B.J.

#AML #cancer #Writing

#AI

I've stumbled across more and more AI-generated images and videos recently, which is no surprise, but I always end up wondering: WTF was the point of that?

In most cases, there is no discernible point. Someone was playing.

Is that why we have more and more energy-hogging apps and data centers? Do we really need a warmer atmosphere? Do the "creatives" who churn this stuff care about any of this?

Help me understand.

If the devil is real

If the devil is real, it is neither she nor he, not they or them, but something within.

It feeds us lies for truth, and hate for love so we mock, and fight, and shoot, and kill.

It warps our minds to lead us back to selfish, fearful, primal days.

Its secret is weakness, its own fear we will open our eyes and see, then cast it out. 

We can open our eyes.

B. J. Smith, 2024

#Poetry

Cookies for life

A nurse was just telling me about the ongoing need for people to donate blood. It’s always in short supply.

She mentioned this while starting my second transfusion of the past few days. Last time it was one unit of blood; today I’m getting two, so I’ll be sitting here for a while.

Until recently I’d pretty much forgotten that I used to be a regular blood donor. At the time I had a somewhat rare type, just like my mother did. Donating just seemed to be the human thing to do (and of course I loved the free cookies after each pint).

Being on the receiving end now gives me some new perspective to go along with my new blood type. It changed because a young man I haven’t met donated stem cells last year for a transplant that saved my life.

It freed me from leukemia for months. Now that the cancer is back and I’m on chemo again, blood donors are keeping me going, as are some awesome medical professionals, family members and friends.

Giving blood saves lives. Plus, maybe you’ll get cookies.

Give if you can, my friends.

B.J.

#AML #cancer #leukemia

December after dark

#Photography

Scenes from a walk by a lake

When you can’t ride your bicycle, sometimes a walk will do.

Get outside if you can, my friends. Get outside.
B.J.

#Cycling #Outdoors #Photography

I don’t care no more

At some point, it feels good and downright refreshing to be able to say “I just don’t care” about some things.

For example, I just don’t care:

• Why you repeat lies about people who don’t look like your bigoted notion of who is an American and who isn’t.
• Why you think a convicted felon should be president instead of behind bars.
• Why you believe in a perverted, twisted idea of our right to bear arms that kills and kills and kills so gunmakers can make money and buy lawmakers.

In every single example, I know why but I don’t care. The simple fact that you do or think or believe those things tells me everything I need to know about you.

I used to try to understand you, but that turns out to have been a waste of precious time. I have no more time to waste on you.

Moving on.

B.J.

See Phil Collins – I Don’t Care Anymore if you didn’t understand what I wrote above.

#Gunsense #Justice

#writing #writingcommunity

Stranger walks

A stranger walks these halls, then sits and stares at nothing in a dark room.

Belonging somewhere else, he\she\it broods and wonders where.

They scratch their scalp, the same raw spot that never heals.

It thinks about its days as a child, a teen, and on and on to now.

Fire and sorrow.
Ecstasy and darkness.
Lost and found and lost again.

The ache in the soul masks the pain in the heart.

The hollow fills the void.

#poetry ... by B.J. Smth

https://smithcompound.blog/on-the-path/

A new goal

This afternoon I went on a walk all by my self.

What I really wanted to do was ride my bicycle and get closer to 2,000 miles for the year, but several recent days of chemo in the hospital and still more chemo at home now have slowed me to a stroll down to the lake. Still, the walk in fresh, winter-chilled air was an OK restart.

Depending on the weather, the meds, the numerous blood tests and yet another bone marrow biopsy in a couple of weeks, maybe I’ll still get close to those extra miles.

It wasn’t even a goal until I found myself reaching 1,755 a couple of weeks ago, just before I learned the leukemia was back. I’ve already nearly doubled my total mileage for 2023.

I certainly won’t get to 2,000 without walking more until I’m strong enough to ride again, then getting out there and pedaling like my life depends on it, right?

Right.

Pedal on, my friends.

B.J.

Related posts are tagged AML if you’re interested.

#AML #cancer #Cycling

Too many humans know it all but can't answer a simple question.
~ Maxim M. Entropy

#quotes #science #statistics #wordplay #words #writing #fiction #physics

No vaccines? Don’t come around here

Imagine you wake up one day from nearly dead to find your immune system has been wiped out by chemotherapy and you need to start over again with all the vaccines you’ve had since you were born.

You read about increasing numbers of children now getting diseases that could have been avoided if only their parents had had those children vaccinated as you were decades ago.

Not only are those children now in serious danger, they and their irresponsible parents are now threats to your own health and your very survival.

Not to be overly dramatic, but that’s exactly where I am now, along with countless other people whose immune systems are compromised.

You’ve either made good decisions or you’ve listened to the wrong people, the anti-vaxxers who have brought us to this dangerous point in history.

If you’ve made good decisions, thank you. If you haven’t, stay the hell away from me and my loved ones.

Seriously, 

B.J.

Related posts are tagged AML if you’re interested.

#AML #cancer #vaccines

Apologies are in order

Dear future, for what it’s worth:

I remember when the United States, despite its many flaws, was largely respected by other free nations. It wasn’t all that long ago.

I am truly sorry that so many voters decided we should put a convicted felon back in the White House, that some people are above the law, and that all the allegiance we pledged to the flag meant nothing to them.

I’m sorry so many voters value bigotry and their own greed over the needs of their fellow citizens.

I’m sorry liberty and justice are not really for all.

I’m also sorry that I have to burn the flag that has been in my family for years.

My siblings and I pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America every day in elementary school. We proudly displayed our own flag on the front porch at home on Independence Day.

In the U.S. Navy, I learned the proper, respectful way to raise, lower and fold the flag. I will burn it with all due respect, as is recommended when an American flag is no longer fit to display.

I’m sorry it has to burn.

I’m sorry the pledge of allegiance was just a lie by so many.

I’m sorry we’ve made such a mess of our democracy.

I pray we’ll find our way again.

B.J.

#patriotism #Politics

To men, straight white guys mostly since you’re the ones l know best: Way too many of you continue to be what are  commonly known as assholes.

I met some of you when I was in elementary school, high school, college, and some when I served in the US Navy and Navy Reserve. Eventually, I grew up. Some others did, too 

Apparently, though, lots of you have never grown into actual manhood. That’s when you have learned to respect women and treat them accordingly. You no longer use words that demean other people who aren’t just like you. 

If you’re whining now about being canceled or ignored, just stop. You deserve it.

Nobody is perfect. But if you voted to put woman-hating traitor Trump back in the White House when he should be in prison, you deserve all the scorn and loneliness coming your way.

Grow up. Man up. Maybe someone will respect you before you die. The clock is ticking.

If you’re a veteran who voted for Trump, you are already dead to me.

B.J.

I won’t pretend to understand why women voted for Trump. Someone will have to explain that to me.

https://smithcompound.blog/2024/11/11/grow-up-be-men/

#constitution #treason #Trump