On writing

I always thought I would be spending my time writing the great American novel by now. It seems that my writing has become more personal, intense and important than that. Through writing I can say many of the things it is hard to articulate verbally. Through this blog I am able to share my thoughts and feelings in a way that is both immediate and honest.

From the time I was a child my father told me that someday I would find myself doing this -- working, writing, and living with the computer. It is now almost as easy as breathing to sit down at the keyboard and let the words flow onto the screen. Although not always the right words.

Keith is discovering the power of the computer in a new way as well. So many people are sharing his journey, including myself and our children. Wherever we are we can stop and read Keith's blog. Each day's writing is like a tiny miracle. Words that touch someone else for a moment. "Take a peak at me," it says.

I remember a long time ago, when I was quite young, riding in a car on a long trip across the country. My face pressed against the cold glass of the window I looked out at the cars zipping by. Glanced into other backseats filled with children and pillows and toys, also traveling to new places. I remember thinking that each individual is so locked inside their own little world that it would be impossible to get inside. How could we ever really get to know someone else? What were their lives like? Were those children happy, peaceful, contented, cared for, anxious, fearful? What were they thinking? As a child I was taught that we could never understand any of the mysteries of the universe until the afterlife.

All that is only partially true. This tiny miracle of instant communication allows each of us to gaze into the minds and hearts of the other. Keith is able to chronicle his fight with cancer and, in doing so, touch the lives of others. We both share each other's thoughts when we read the other's writing as well. Personal, universal -- intimate, public -- it's a dichotomy of inner and outer worlds colliding in a beautiful explosion of technology and one of the oldest forms of communication -- the written word.

Miracles daily. Who knew?