Isom Kuade On May 30, our friend Oren Miller was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. This devastating disease carries an average life expectancy of 1 year. While we are diligently hopeful for more, we want to ensure Oren and Beth get help with medical bills, are able to put away money for Liam and Madeline, and get some awesome family time together. We want to show our gratitude and give back just a small portion of the friendship and support we’ve gained because of and from him.
This is the message on the campaign page for one of the founders of the online Dad Blogger group, Oren Miller. I was invited into this global group of 600+ only a few months ago and it’s been a privilege to share banter, horror stories, support, advice, or just be a venting wall in one of the most accepting communities I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of.
This is all possible due to Oren and his friends.
And now, he and his family could use the help of the community he helped to build and I would like my words to help in any way possible.
Oren announced his diagnosis and gave his take on the matter on on his own blog. I highly suggest taking an extra few minutes out of your day to read his first hand perspective.
I can only imagine what he and his wife lie awake at night thinking about these days. The questions, the planning, the hope, the prayers, the fear, the wonder, the isolation, the helplessness and every single other roller coaster of emotion that comes with the facing of ones own mortality and the affect it has on the ones we love the most.
I find myself thinking about his kids and inadvertently thinking about mine.
I don’t know Oren personally, but I have seen cancer take it’s toll on loved ones. I feel simultaneously useless, hopeful, guilty, and confused as I write about his situation. Then I feel
I hope my words have an impact, because we all need help from time to time. We fathers like to don imaginary superhero capes and act like our manliness is measured on how large of a load we can bear on our backs.
None of humanity works this way. None of us can get by 100% alone.
We all need help at one time or another. We need the support of our fellow man. We need to learn how to ask for help. We all need to learn to accept help. I’m trying to learn how extend an offer of help when I am able.
One of the other Dad Bloggers, Jim, shared a great link about what’s possible when people choose to stop being bystanders in life and actually start participating.
It’s true. Many of us are still passive bystanders in our own lives instead of actively living as the protagonist of our own story.
This won’t be the case today.
I am actively asking you, my reader to read Oren’s story.
I’m actively asking you to step outside of yourself for a few brief moments.
I’m actively asking you to donate to the #helporen campaign this wonderful community has started.
I’m actively asking you to not be a bystander today.
When I first started my site, I knew it would be mostly filled with crap. At least to most people, it would be crap. Post after post of egotistical dribble and attempts at self discovery. I also knew that if I simply kept writing, I would eventually write something worth a damn. I would be able to use the modern wonder of written communication, shared instantly from my fingertips and globally accessible for some good.
If I could choose when and for what purpose, it would be now, with these words, I would hope to encourage someone to help us get to our $30,000 goal. We’re so close.
I can only hope to encourage enough people to become active in directly impacting a family’s life.
If not, a ‘share’ is always appreciated.
