I’m Not Dead Yet (I.N.D.Y.)

Have you ever played one of those “Get to know you” games where you provide an unknown, yet interesting, tidbit of information about yourself?  Well, in playing those games in the past, I have usually used the tidbit that I am 2nd degree blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do and a 3rd degree blackbelt in Kenpo, but I have another secret; one, I’m sure, most of you would never have guessed:  I am a fan of professional wrestling.

I will now wait for you to get over your coughing fits, in the event you were in the process of drinking something.  Done?  Good!  Let’s move on.

Like many of my adolescent (male) peers, I enjoyed watching the Saturday morning wrestling shows, which I described as testosteronic soap operas.  There was a good guy (who followed the rules and was often taken advantage of as a result) and a bad guy (who broke the rules to further himself).  You could root for one or the other, but it was (if not high) generally entertaining theater (at least for Merle the adolescent / young adult / adult — yeah, well, okay!  I still watch from time to time).

When I moved to Atlanta, I took that fandom a step further when I began photographing professional wrestling for a independent promotion here.  In fact, my start as a wedding photographer grew out of my wrestling photography (bear with me here); as I shot their matches, I got to know the wrestlers better and better.  When one of them was getting married, he asked if I would photograph his wedding.  Then another and another did.  That got me hooked on being a (wedding) photographer, but that’s fodder for a different blog post.  As I was saying, as I worked (loosely termed, as I wasn’t paid) for the wrestling promotion, I really enjoyed getting to see the “business” part of the wrestling world.

So what does all this have to do with my pancreas cancer?  Hold your horses!  I’m getting there.

While photographing wrestling, I also had the opportunity to meet, observe, and often photograph wrestlers who, up until that point, had only existed in my world on television.  I had the opportunity to meet wrestlers who were legitimately “celebrities” in the wrestling world and it was a thrill to meet them.  But in so meeting them, I realized that these wrestlers were, by and large, just regular guys who happened to perform on television.  The awe of their celebrity was less overwhelming (but not less impressive) and I became less awestruck by their presence.

So back to the cancer thing.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you will know that I hold Dr. Randy Pausch in quite high esteem.  In large part, I have looked to Randy as a role model on how to deal with my disease and be an advocate for those who are either in a similar situation or fighting for a cure.   I am no Randy Pausch, but I am doing what I am able. In fact, early in my diagnosis, and before he died, I Emailed Randy to let him know how much I appreciated his “Last Lecture” and how much he had inspired me in my fight.  Understandably, I did not hear back from him (this was after his “Last Lecture” presentation had gone viral on the Internet — I’m sure he was bombarded by an overwhelming number of Email messages at that time).

No!  I’m not going to tell you that I was visited by Randy’s spirit; however, through a series of events, which I can elaborate on in a later post, my respect and admiration for Randy (let alone my actual existence) was conveyed to Randy’s wife, Jai (whom I grew to equally admire through Randy’s blog posts).  Yesterday, I received a package from Jai with a lovely note and a copy of Randy’s book with an equally lovely inscription.  I felt (and still feel) like the main character in the movie “Julie and Julia” when she realized that people she admired and held in high esteem had read her blog.  I think my (and MaryBeth’s) exact response was something along the lines of, “That’s SOOO cool!”

In many ways, Jai is just as much a celebrity (in my mind and for many other people, as well) as was Randy — a celebrity for different reasons, but a celebrity nonetheless.  But as with the famous wrestlers, receiving the card and the book from Jai makes her celebrity a little less overwhelming and the person a little more “real.”

While I will send a personal note, I wanted to take this time (presuming any of you have stuck with this rambling expose) to publicly thank Jai for reaching out to me and offering her support to me and my family.

Cheers,

Merle

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