MYTH and REALITY................

Let’s play a quick game, which just for fun we’ll call “Myth and Reality” ; in which I’ll first state a generalized myth or accepted ideal about a specific subject , and then present either factual evidence to the contrary  or provide my view on what the reality REALLY is. Now that we’ve laid out the framework of the rules for our little game, let’s begin………….

1)      MYTH: The Academy  Awards ceremony (a.k.a. “the Oscars”) is an annual event  held to publicize the presentation of awards for the “best of the best” in their respective fields within  the film/ motion picture industry.

REALITY: The Oscars are actually Hollywood / the entertainment industry’s way of promoting itself to the GREATEST degree of excess possible, to remind us “common folk” just how special that THEY ARE, and that YOU are NOT. Do you really want to see them ‘parade’ themselves on the “Red Carpet” ?  Really ??? So you can be reminded that they are wearing designer suits and dresses /  clothing styles and fashion that cost them what it would require YOU to work (no, SLAVE for) a year or two of your annual salary ? But I digress (tongue in cheek)……..

2)      MYTH: The NBA All-Star Weekend is a 3-day event that is a showcase of talent of the league’s biggest and brightest stars, in a stunning display that is a combination of skill, raw talent and ability, and showmanship designed specifically to entertain basketball fans all over the world.

REALITY:  The NBA All-Star Weekend is merely just a bunch of GROSSLY overpaid athletes, with incredibly OVER INFLATED egos, participating in a bunch of ‘playground’ –type games , passing them all off as having the importance of an national event, with the accompanying hype and shameless self-promotion of hip-hop culture (I’ll get to that in a second), and then over-charging fans to attend the event for thousands of dollars ------- my sports hero growing up as a kid (“Pistol” Pete Maravich) could provide REAL ENTERTAINMENT when he played for fans who could attend the games for the price of general admission ($ 7 ), and he surely would be disgusted with how the game he (and  I ) grew up loving has de-evolved into the “sport” (if we can still call it that) that it currently has become…….

3)      MYTH: The price of gas continues to rise because of a combination of factors which include crisis in the Middle East (affecting oil production), the resistance to open up federal oil reserves such as the one in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge (affecting oil production, or its lack thereof), and the continued greed of wealthy oil companies who know that they can get away with over charging the consumer, since we NEED their product to maintain the ability to drive / transport ourselves from one place to another.

REALITY: While all of those factors are plausible, the current hysteria is actually being blamed (hey, someone deserves to get some ‘heat’ over this blatant GOUGING of our pockets) on “oil speculators”, who are investors who snap up oil contracts that are currently up for bid on the oil production market, in an attempt to bet that they’ll be worth MORE in the future, and by doing so (which is the part that I personally still have difficulty understanding) drive up the price of gas by ‘predicting’ what the cost of oil production will be down the line . My question is WHY are these guys having THAT MUCH influence on the price of fuel ?  An Iranian president bent on causing conflict in international waters --- I get that ; but “speculators” ??? I’m at THEIR mercy??? Give me a break, already………..

4)      MYTH: Hip-Hop performer / rapper/ R&B singer Nicki Manaj is an exciting  and culturally iconic performer, who has taken the music industry by storm , and in the process gaining legions of fans.

REALITY: Nicki Manaj probably does possess some talent (I think), but unfortunately it is not suited to SINGING, as in the ABILITY TO VOCALIZE a song, in the field of musical performance. And as someone who grew up during the “heyday” of the rap music era, her “rapping” is completely INCOMPREHENSIBLE  -------- does anyone even know just WHAT it is that she’s even saying half of the time ??? Another PRIME example of an individual in the music industry with little or no talent, becoming famous because of (and by taking advantage of) a generation of youth that doesn’t KNOW ANY BETTER…………………

5)      MYTH:  President Barack Obama will EASILY win re-election later this year, because much like Bill Clinton in 1996 (when he CRUSHED Bob Dole), he will basically run “unopposed”, since the Republican candidate will be unelectable in the eyes of the voting public.

REALITY: Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum ........  who YOU got ??? By the way, I hold no allegiance to either party, but as a former Young Republican in the ‘80’s and a huge supporter and devotee of Ronald Reagan, I know that the Republican Party faces an uphill battle , especially when they spend so much time trying to “take out” EACH OTHER………….

Now see ? Wasn’t that fun ? We’ll revisit this game once again sometime, in the near  future ; and please feel  free  (in the comments section, below) to submit some topics that YOU would like to see discussed, for the next time that we play --------- “MYTH and REALITY”……………………….

Mercy, Guilt, and The Great Man............

     I was overcome with guilt this week, with the aftermath of the death of a great man. You see, as a survivor of cancer myself, everytime some one passes from cancer, I am remorseful that I have benefited from a combination of the miracles of modern medical science and technology, and also (and most importantly) the absolute incredible mercy and grace of the Almighty God above, who has spared my life on MORE than one occasion ; ranging from a gun to my head in the notorious 7th Ward of New Orleans in the late 1990's, to my  then - terminal prognosis with stomach cancer in 2005, and then my subsequent experience  IN Hurricane Katrina (literally) just a few short months later. I should have ALREADY BEEN DEAD more times than I can count (figuratively), and so when ever someone that I've had the privilege to know (and in some cases to love and admire) passes away, especially from the absolute worst scourge against humanity that there has been in the disease of cancer, then I am always torn apart emotionally at the thought that it should have been ME that has suffered the loss of my life ; instead of the ones who have passed on after these recent years of additional life that I have been both fortunate and privileged to live.
    
     Surely I do not kid myself ----- I realize just how incredibly blessed that I am to have been given a "new lease on life" , and while I have been making the most of my opportunities (through my return to college to pursue my degree and my old dream of a writing career), I'm not totally naive to think that at ANY TIME , and at any moment ; that the proverbial rug could be "pulled out from beneath me", and the sobering diagnosis that the cancer has in fact returned ; I live in fear of that possibility every single day, but yet I'm comforted by the fact that God has chosen to spare my life so many times because he has a PURPOSE for me in this world; and one that I hope to fufill at some point when He sees fit to reveal just what it actually is.

      Recently about 3 months ago, I experienced some anxiety when having a procedure done at the Indiana University Hospital in Bloomington ; which was a sigmoidoscopy (a lesser version of a colonoscopy) to see if I have remained cancer - free over the last few years. After originally being diagnosed with colon cancer in May of 2003 (my colon, as the doctor at the time told me, was covered in THOUSANDS of polyps) and having my entire colon removed (I literally have a "artificial" colon, which in medical terminology is refered to as a "J-Pouch"), in March of 2005 I was given the devastating news that not only had the cancer returned, but had spread upward into my stomach (which at the time , I had experienced symptoms that I knew couldn't be good, by coughing up HUGE amounts of blood at a time, but dismissed it as just being an ulcer), and the sobering reality that my prognosis was more than likely terminal ----- a sentence of death for a man who was only 37 and a half years into his life. It was a crushing blow, both physically and emotionally. There has been nothing worse in my life than the knowledge that I was about to DIE, and that there was absolutely NOTHING that I could do about it. I can not even begin to describe just what the mental anguish is like, when you have the knowledge that you ARE going to die. It is sheer agony of the worst kind, a sort of "mental Hell". I had actually tried to come to terms with my situation, and even resolved myself to making light of my unfortunate reality , by making morbid jokes to my close friends and loved ones that I was a 'dead man walking' . But it was certainly no laughing matter, to say the least. My situation slowly began to worsen, and my doctor / gastreonologist had told my brother (who had began looking after me by this point) that there was really not a whole lot else that they could do for me , other than the option of sending me to M.D. Anderson Medical Center in Houston, Texas (the most renowned cancer treatment hospital in the United States) to live out my final months of life.

      But then, as I like to sometimes now refer to it:  "my miracle happened" ; as I lay in a hospital bed in East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie (suburban New Orleans) one day, my doctor (and a wonderful and compassionate human being by the name of Dr. David Silvers), burst in through the door to my room, and with an excitement in his voice , said to me: "Mr. Hirstius !!! I have WONDERFUL news!!! I found someone who has agreed to take your case!!!" And that someone just happened to be one of the most renowned cancer surgeons in the entire United States, who just happened to be on staff at a hospital right across town, at Tulane Medical Center in downtown New Orleans. His name was Dr. Ralph Corsetti, who specializes in a rare (but extremely risky) procedure (and in most cases, LIFE-SAVING technique) known as a pancreaticoduodenectomy, or as it is more commonly refered to, "The Whipple" ---- a procedure that is very similar in nature to a "stomach staple" surgery for individuals who have weight gain /obesity issues, with the difference being that in the Whipple procedure, the cancerous tissue is removed , or 'cut out' from the stomach ; the stomach then subsequently is reconstructed, in the hopes that the individual will (with the commitment to lifestyle change and better new eating habits) adapt to the alteration to the stomach over time and be able to maintain a somewhat normal life.  On July 12, 2005 ( I will always remember the date because it is the day that I got a second chance, or a 'new lease' on life), the nearly 6-hour long procedure was done successfully by Dr. Corsetti and his team of surgeons, and I now approach nearly 7 years later , the opportunity to continue LIVING my life, the same life that was nearly lost from this horrendous curse upon mankind that is cancer. Ironically, my life was jeopardized yet again during my period of recuperation after the surgery, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th (I did NOT evacuate from New Orleans). But that of course, is completely an entirely different story that I will save for some other time...................

Whatcha Talking About ???

As I contemplate what exactly to write my first 'true' post about this morning , I first have to take a moment to marvel at the expanse of technology that is allowing me to reach an entire audience that probably would have been completely impossible, even just 10 years ago. Back when I initially dreamed of being a writer, in my days as of the editor of my old high school (Belaire High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) newspaper "The Kannada Review"  (I'll save the explanation of that name for a future post), the only way that I could have ever envisioned reaching such a wide array of people would have to been employed as a columnist for a major metropolitan newspaper (the New Orleans newspaper Times-Picayune (nola.com) remains still as one of my "dream jobs", to this very day); the explosion of social media such as Facebook is even responsible for this very article that you are reading , and for my recent marriage (my new wife is my former high school sweetheart, whom I met initially in November of 1984 at that same Baton Rouge high school), when my wonderful wife found me by chance while she looked to see if I had an account on Facebook (which I had just signed up for about 2 months prior). I guess that for many folks such as myself that would be considered "old school" , we have a natural resistance to 'change', and basically anything that we are unfamiliar with or that which makes us feel uncomfortable ( how can I embrace  the new '4G' network , when I still am getting used to '3G' ? )  It is truly an amazing thing, and I can hardly imagine what the future may hold down the line.

Introducing "Nola Nate"......

Back when I was a student in high school English Literature class, I can remember our teacher telling us the story of how a little known aspiring writer named Samuel Langhorne Clemens wrote a story that became famous under the ‘pen name’ of “Mark Twain” , and thereby guaranteed himself a permanent spot among the literary greats, with a name other than his very own. So it was with that story in mind that I decided to use the Blog post name of “Nola Nate” (a play on words which simply means a native citizen of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana);  which is my hometown and to hear my wife tell it, the place where my heart, mind, and soul STILL resides, while my body remains here in a little town just outside of Bloomington, Indiana.  New Orleans was and is a major influence in my life, and there is a famous saying among its people that: “You don’t know what it means, to miss New Orleans” (which essentially is saying that you don’t truly appreciate New Orleans until you’re NO LONGER there) . In what I hope happens to be a long and interesting history for the future of this Blog, I will try not to include the mention of my beloved hometown TOO much, with the understanding that it is part of everything that I think, say, and do ; a part of every single fiber of my entire being -------- As I began this pursuit of obtaining that old high school dream of one day becoming a professional writer (now some 25 plus years later from when I actually first dreamed of it happening), I do it not only for myself ; but for that place so near and dear to my heart , that place that I still refer to as HOME……………………..