A wonderful week-end for me. The celebration of life ceremony for my cousin, my friend, and my brother was lovely. If he’s at much at peace as I am … then I would say all is good in my orbit.
When you’re going thru the Stage 4 journey….you cannot allow things beyond your control to derail you. It’s the same tomorrow as its been from Day 1….one day at a time. Be the best version of yourself every day. Don’t waste a day. Embrace the little things. Be kind.
I put the song up here for any Trump fake Christians who have perhaps inadvertently stumbled onto my underground blog page.
What I’m saying is….MJ is trying to reach out to you. Let’s put the labels and the anger aside.
We don’t need to be hanging one another if our candidate loses an election.
Collectively….we’re going to work through all of this angst and come to terms with your pent up, repressed racism.
Mark’s service is this evening and it’s been two weeks of reflection for me. Very tough, but you know….in the end I’m just happy my friend, my cousin, and my brother lived his life the way he did.
I think all of us who loved him can come to terms with this fact.
This evening the service to celebrate his life is being held.
This song by Tracy Chapman to me perfectly describes the relationship Mark and Carla shared.
Donald Trump has a bit of problem and it’s not soley the fact Kamala Harris now holds a 44% to 42% lead in the first national poll since her ascension to be the Democratic nominee along with what should be a moderate male VP choice.
The convicted felon Donald Trump has two problems beyond the fact he is indeed a convicted felon and should be in federal prison for what he did before Jan. 6th, what he did on Jan. 6, and for what he’s done ever since January 6th.
The problem with Donald Trump is that like Joe Biden he’s too old to be the next American president even if he does avoid federal prison where he rightfully belongs.
And to you Trump people who thought the 2024 GOP Smackdown with JD Vance was a great thing this is for you.
You like apples? JD Vance, the fake hillbilly, now holds a national -6 approval rating.
How you people like those apples?
Even Dan Quayle and crazy Sarah Palin never came close to those numbers.
Has an American presidential nominee ever fired his VP nominee before Labor Day?
JD…you have two problems as well. Since you graduated from Yale Law School you tell me which one is more urgent….getting fired or getting hung by POTUS 45. You tell, MJ.
Enough of that.
Our freedom and our shared dream of the American Dream are at stake in this election.
Do the right thing which goes beyond just selecting the lowest effective tax rate for yourselves this time around.
Freedom and self-determination used to be Republican mantras. Not so much anymore with the MAGA crowd.
God bless, America.
Mike J
I need to write some NBA things in the next few days
You Trump people out there….you think your boy Donald Trump would have ever done what Joe Biden did on Sunday afternoon?
Allow me to answer my own non-rhetorical question. NOT A CHANCE. Not a singular chance.
Joe Biden did the right thing yesterday. It took awhile, but he got there.
Joe Biden will probably go down as the most active domestic president since LBJ’s Great Society was passed into law in 1965. In short…he did things to help all Americans, not just wealthy white American men.
What was LBJ’s Great Society? It was a combination of 89 pieces of legislation which made America a fairer place to live for all Americans of every sex, every race, every religion, and every economic standing.
But Biden, like LBJ in Vietnam, in my mind suffered his presidential death knell with the Israel situation. The Amerian public became weary. Weary of seeing the horrific acts on their television screens each passing day.
Inflation is steadily coming down. Unemployment has been at historical lows. Jerome Powell, a Republican, chairs the Federal Reserve and regulates interest rates….not Joe Biden. The Dow passed the 41,000 threshold. America can still be the world’s energy leader if it so chooses.
So Joe Biden will be done as POTUS at the end of his one term. Now, again for you Trump people out there…you seem to forget certain aspects of your boy’s four years in office. You seem to suffer from what I would describe as political amnesia.
You people seem to forget the massive deficits, you seem to forget the Paul Ryan tax break in reality did nothing for sustained long-term GDP growth, you seem to forget your boy’s Wall never got built and in fact Obama did a better job with immigration. You people also seem to forget your boy seemed to forge closer relationships with Putin and the fat kid in North Korea over America’s closest historical allies.
Any of you Trump zealots think Brexit turned out well for the Brits? Britain is now an anecdotal country. That’s how well that went.
You people also seem to forget OKLAHOMA’S own ultra conservative senator James Lankford’s bi-partisan immigration package was killed by your boy because his name wasn’t on it. I never heard that once at the WWE Smackdown a.k.a. as the 2024 GOP Convention.
Country first with Donald Trump, right? You people are adorables…not deplorables. You are adorable.
You people and the amazing JD Vance also seem to conveniently forget Trump would have been perfectly fine with his Proud Boys and Oath Keepers hanging Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
JD Vance…a word of advice….sleep with one eye open. Your grandmama ain’t still livin’. Just saying.
How can I take you people seriously?
Let me be even more blunt with you people….. I find you laughable at best. To truly MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN you people need to grow up in a hurry. READING SOME BOOKS might prove to be helpful. Learning about our country’s history might not hurt. Learning about our own economic system could be a game changer.
As far as Kamala Harris…I’m not thrilled. But let me add, for the next three weeks I’ll keep my mouth shut on my blog until I see how she conducts herself in these three weeks between now and the Democratic Convention.
In closing let me say this as a former Republican and current Independent who in essence is a Lincoln Project Republican… 51% of registered voters in America are now Independents like myself. I’m tired of seeing the Trump MAGA dimwits and the far left ruin our country.
So why don’t you two groups of people do the right thing just like Joe Biden just did.
That being, grow up and think of your country first and yourself lastly.
And by the way, not one person on the American Dream video I just posted… said living in a free country where just having the chance to attain their dream were the first words out of their mouths. If you don’t have freedom…then how could ever have an American Dream?
This was one of the truly great speeches in American presidential history. It was primarily written by Richard Goodwin who then later became the husband of the iconic presidential historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin.
This is precisely the type of speech Joe Biden should give no later than Monday.
What Joe & Jill Biden have done since his disastrous debate performance is in a sense almost as treasonous as to what occurred on January 6th in that it basically does not give our country any ‘real’ choice moving forward.
I’m vexed.
If this is truly the most American presidential election ever then why has the Democratic Party so massively failed the American people so far in this campaign?
And let me add this in closing…no one in America minus the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party want Kamala Harris in the White House as well.
So here’s what I’m saying….if the Dems are truly serious about preserving American democracy then I would suggest they collectively pull their heads out of their asses in the next 48 hours and make sure Donald Trump and this ‘new’ version of JD Vance do not only win the election, but walk in riding the crest what appears to be a mandate as well.
Joe Biden, dude….this is beyond belief. Figure it out.
It was a good day for me. The shock of what transpired on Sunday morning is beginning to subside. Everything is beginning to feel ‘somewhat’ normal again for me. I’m at peace. I know Mark is at peace as well.
I think it’s okay to grieve and cry, but at some point for me at least….I had to get that little voice in the back on my head saying, ” Let’s go, MJ. We’ve still got some serious work in front of us to beat this horrible disease.”
So I basically headed over to the Integris Cancer Center and found my special little place where I meditate and pray. It’s a beautiful little spot and there’s a coffee machine not far away where I always make myself a cup of praline pecan coffee.
Everything came into focus for me. I’m good. It doesn’t mean I won’t cry again at some point. But it feels as if I centered myself to the point where I can get back to work beating Stage 4 cancer.
I then changed into my Jamal Murray jersey and put on one of my MJ ( Michael Jordan) NBA Championship ballcaps and headed over to the Wellness Center for my first workout of the week.
To be blunt…I nailed it. It was my best time ever in my one mile sprint workout on the bike. I just killed it.
Then I headed into the weight room and much to my surprise a former NBA player was in the gym working out. So to me… that meant I should just follow him on the machines doing the exact same weight and reps.
Thing is though….his workout was a little pedestrain for me so I had to start adding 20 to 40 pounds on every machine.
One of my old racquetball tournamnent buddies… Don, watched the whole thing and said,” You just blew him away like some little girl.”
I replied, “Yes, I did and if I had a right knee I’d be dangerous right now.”
I haven’t been on here in awhile. I’ve been too busy living life to the max every day.
Yesterday was probably one of the most jubilant days in my life until around noon. I got up early on Sunday morning and headed off to our family land and fishing pond just southwest of Alex.
This was a big test for me. I went by myself in my truck with two fishing poles and my high end hiking poles. This was the first time since my cancer diagnosis that I felt comfortable enough with my physical condition to do this solo.
My primary goal was simple… head down to the pond and do one hiking trek around the two acre pond and then make it back to my truck on what is a tough terrain trek. This is rough land. Not many flat spots. Gray County isn’t for sissies.
And I have to say I did it easily with plenty left in my gas tank. The last twenty yards I was Rocky with my fists pumped upright towards the sky. Yo, Adrian.
It was a great moment for me. A moment I’ll never forget on my cancer journey.
I bonded with our three new burrows who have been added to the cattle mix to protect the cattle from coyotes. I then fly-fished for bluegill and perch for about an hour. I caught about thirty fish in an hour and decided to get back to the truck and head back home.
But before I started my truck…I looked at my cell phone and noticed I had a call not only from my wife, but one as well from my cousin/brother Mark.
Except the problem is the call from Mark was from his wife Carla notifying me Mark had suffered a brain aneurysm on Sunday morning and was on life support at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City.
It was then explained to me from my wife Mark would be taken off life support that evening as there was no hope.
Keep in mind…Mark was only sixty years of age and played competitive tennis and golf his entire adult life. There is an absurdity to this which has not escaped me. That being…I always figured Mark would out live me by at least twenty years.
Life is hard and sometimes it makes no sense whatsoever. This is one of those times.
Mark was my cousin. My friend. And in reality….one of my brothers. Mark was a person I truly admired and looked up to even though he was five years younger than me.
As a husband, I can think of no other man who held a candle to Mark. His devotion to Carla was absolute. His love and dedication to his two daughters, Avery and Em, was off the charts. He lived his life to a code which all of us as men should aspire.
He genuinely cared about other people. It didn’t matter if you were poor or rich. Black or white. Whatever. He had a kind heart and a sense of aspiration which is achingly missing currently in American culture. He’s the guy you would want in the foxhole next to you if you’d been wounded in battle.
If you had Mark as a friend…you had something special. Me? I had him as a friend, a cousin, and a brother. I’m one lucky dude to have been in Mark’s inner circle. I am.
I’m not angry at God, but rather the opposite. I feel grateful for all the great experiences I shared with Mark over the years. I won’t sugarcoat this. I hurt right now. I feel like my guts have yanked out. I feel like a truck ran over me yesterday.
But life is tough and I will respond to this grief in my own time. My own way. There is no statue of limitations for grief.
Mark was one of my many inspirations for me pulling myself back up after the 1212 PSA count which had me on an apparent death sentence of sorts. He challenged me. He pushed me. He knew I wouldn’t just curl up and die.
And I didn’t. Mark was a huge part of this with me. Fortunately, for me, I called Mark around six weeks ago and told him how much he meant to me. I told him I loved him like a brother.