Cancer-Quest

If every man needs a quest then I'm in luck, because now I have a new one! Earlier this week, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer. Just a few years back, both my grandmother and grandfather passed away from cancer, also. It is a horrible disease. Being that I live in Houston, TX, which is the home of MD Anderson Cancer Center, I am both fortunate that the people I know who encounter this nightmare have the best care in the world available to them, and unfortunate to see people suffer through both disease and treatment--though some of there stories are among the most inspiring you'll ever hear. MD Anderson has one of the greatest mottos ever: "Making Cancer History."

I hope the good women and men that work at Anderson do make cancer history. You see, it's not just that my mother-in-law has cancer, but her mother died from breast cancer at about the same age my mother-in-law is now. It doesn't stop there, either. Not only did my wife's grandmother die from breast cancer, but so did her two sister and their mother. That's right, four breast cancer deaths in two generations and a breast cancer diagnosis in a third generation.

It doesn't take a brilliant mind to realize that my wife, Rochelle, is the fourth generation of women in this family, and my daughter Malia is the fifth. I am glad that there are people whose goal in life "making cancer history". I want to help them, I now have a quest, a new place to bend my attention and incline my ear. The quest: To do whatever I can to aid and help the people who are dedicated to treating and ending cancer.

Would you join me?

Would you make a donation to The Cancer Research and Prevention Center. I actually heard about the center from Phil Gordon, co-host of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. For your donation, you can receive one of Phil's books on poker. So there you go, you can join the quest to prevent cancer and learn how to make more money at the poker table so you can give more money to help prevent cancer. It's a win-win situation. That is except for cancer; for cancer it's lose-lose.

Later...

I'm sorry that my blogging has been so slow. I've had a hectic schedule, and now both daughter and wife are sick. So I'm playing nurse this week and handling work during the baby's nap hours and late hours.

I hope everyone at your home is doing well.

Hatching Integrity!

Every now and then something so astonishing happens that I can hardly believe it. Like many people, when this life is over, I will have several questions for God. However, the problems of pain, suffering, and death have been bumped from the top of the list. What's at the top? How can people have such little integrity?

If you haven't heard, Richard Hatch, the first million dollar winner form TV's biggest reality game show 'Survivor' has been charged with tax evasion. You guessed it, he failed to report his million dollar earnings from 'Survivor'.

Are you kidding me? 25 million people saw you win a million dollars and you didn't think the IRS was gonna sniff you out! That's like the 5-year-old who's covered in finger paint telling his mother he doesn't know who put the hand prints on the wall. Come on! Hatch's feet reminds me of the bank robber who handed the teller a note demanding all the money in her register, but he had written it on the back of one of his own deposit slips. At present Hatch faces jail times and fines that would financially wipe him out.

Now I realize that the taxes on one million dollars is more money than I make in a year, but if given that lump sum, I think most of us could grin and bear the taxes. Is it that hard to have a little integrity?

Healing Hands

I just returned from a trip out-of-town. I guess that's something I should have mentioned earlier for all of you who keep checking back for updates. Anyway, as many of you know, when you go out-of-town for a week, there's three weeks worth of work for you to do when you get back.

I don't know about you, but I cannot keep my mind off the devastating tsunami in SE Asia. In addition, my mind is now drowning in thoughts about the deadly mudslides in California. I want to spend some time talking about the big "where's God" question as it pertains to these events, but I will save that for later. Today, I just want to do what I can to spread some Light on the lives that are lost in some much darkness due to these events.

Last week I heard about a great organization, Healing Hands International . You might want to check them out and see what you can do to be light-bearers as well.

God Bless.