Seth's Info

After waiting for a day, I was finally admitted late Tuesday morning to Fox Chase. I got to spend Monday with Mom and visit my sister and my grandfather, so everything turned out fine. As a reward for my patience I was assigned a private room (there are only 4 in the whole hospital), which is very, very nice. My chemotherapy got underway yesterday afternoon, which means I should be discharged Saturday around noon time. So far I am feeling well and keeping busy with email, DVD’s, and reading. I try to take a walk every few hours, dragging my IV pole along. The picture below is of me and my friend Kurt down at the shore. I have some more pictures I'll post soon.


I was speaking to my Grandmother a few weeks ago, and she had recommended reading and memorizing some poetry for when I’m feeling to lousy to read. I don’t normally read much poetry, but I found a Pocket Book of Verse at my parent’s house. I have enjoyed reading through the various poems, you find a lot of snippets that are familiar and it’s nice to learn the poems from which they come. I have found two poems that struck home with me and my current situation. The first is a sonnet by George Santayana called O World. Santayana was Spanish born and educated in America in the late 1800’s. He was a prolific author, and is best known for his "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" from Reason in Common Sense. The sonnet reads…

O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul's invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought divine.

I like this poem because it recognizes some of the limits of science and knowledge (i.e. we still don’t have a medical cure for cancer), and stresses the importance of faith and self-belief, which can take you long way when fighting a disease.

The second poem is well known and often quoted -- Invictus (Latin for “unconquerable”) by William Ernest Henley who wrote it from a hospital bed while fighting tuberculosis. This poem is much more stoic than the first, but if you are feeling kicked around and like the odds are against you, this poem is hard to beat.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

As a side note, Timothy McVeigh quoted this poem as his final statement before his execution, inappropriate for a coward and murderer in my opinion. It upset a lot of people when he did it, but it doesn’t ruin the poem for me.

Well, enough poetry for now. If you have any favorite poems or verses, please send them my way. Hope everyone is staying cool, fortunately I’m stuck in the hospital till things cool off.

Take care,
Seth