ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

No, I have not been nominated yet, to take the ice bucket challenge, but for sure, I would do this if anyone read this blog and decided to take me up on the challenge. Like many, I've been painfully touched by ALS (Lou Gherig's disease). My mom died in 1996 at 65 years old, within the standard 3 years of getting the disease. Make no mistake, ALS is one hell of a cruel disease and it was unbearably sad to watch our mother of 8 children, be stripped of her dignity from this disease. I say stripped of her dignity by way of her gradual loss of all motor function, when she could no longer speak she wrote notes to us, when she could no longer write, she just looked at us lovingly with her kind sky blue eyes. I don't claim to know a lot about dignity in life, but most of what I know, I learned from my mom during her fight to fight a lost cause which is ALS. I suppose Steven Hawking gives hope to any individual with ALS or their family for that matter, but the truth is, it's one of the worse death sentences anyone can imagine.

This week, I've been watching videos of famous and not so famous people taking the ALS ice bucket challenge. I don't know who or how this started but I welcome it with open arms and heart. Thankfully, ALS does not kill near as many people as cancer or Alzheimer's, but it is probably the worse disease that anyone can get and little is known about it. As such, little research and funding goes towards better understanding and maybe finding a cure for it. There is evidence of a genetic component for the disease which means that me or one of my siblings may contract this disease in our lifetime. If its me, I doubt I'll have the strength and dignity my mom had, and I would welcome a bullet to my brain. Perhaps a cowards way out, but unlike my mom, I don't have a partner or any children to teach this most valuable lesson in life. Shit happens and it's important for those around you, to never give up hope. So I salute all those tough and compassionate souls out there dumping ice cold water on their heads to draw attention to this horrid disease.  Even though President Obama felt that it wasn't dignified or proper for someone of his stature to engage in such an act, I still kind of like the guy. He would if he could. This reminds me of the barriers and obstacles that still and perhaps always will be around when it comes to taking action on such issues. Of course, there's no shortage of good causes that are worthy of showing support or disgust by way of dumping a bucket load of ice water over your head. A heart felt thank you to all those brave and hardy people who have helped show us the way.