Mother's Day... What Can Destroy a Mother? I've Seen it With My Own Eyes

This might seem a bit strange, but since next week Sunday is Mother's Day, I thought I'd write this is for a select group of very (un-)lucky mothers (and their children) that I've met before... Perhaps, by knowing this story before this Mother's Day, we will all be able to appreciate just how lucky we are and be just a tad bit more thankful for what we have. 

I've been doing some things to help charities for children with incurable disease and children with cancer recently. I think, from these experiences, I keep getting a sad memory flashing back in my head and that flashback really bothers me. It's the memory of something that happened a few years ago. I'd like to tell you about it and, hopefully, with that, I can do something to get rid of these recurring thoughts in my mind.

Before that, some short background: My own daughter recovered from what was diagnosed as incurable cancer when she was a little girl. In spite of that, she recovered; but not fully. She is still wheelchair bound.

My lovely daughter

Nevertheless she is the happiest kid you could ever meet and just entered university one month ago. She loves it.

During the nearly two years she was in the hospital, I saw many kids and their families; many kids who didn't make it. Many kids who the doctors gave up on and sent them home to hospice to die in peace with their parents at their side. Because my daughter recovered I have always been eternally grateful.

How wonderful it is for children to be be accepted as "one of us" by their peers.

People probably don't realize how much of a treasure that really is!

After she recovered, I decided to pay back to God and society by volunteering every year. One thing I do is volunteer and dress up as Santa Claus and visit sick, some terminally, children at various Children's Hospital's in Japan every Christmas. (Please refer to: Santa Claus Visits Tokyo Hospital for Children With Incurable Diseases).

It was at one of these hospital's that I had the glimpse of the event that has bothered me greatly and will always bother me until the day I die, I suppose.

Here's what happened:

I was dressed up as Santa Claus and visiting a hospital in Tokyo that particular year. I had visited already a hundred or so children when I walked into the Intensive Care Ward. Upon visiting many kids there, I walked into a private room. There I saw a mother and her baby who looked to be about 2 months old or so. The baby was lying still on the bed and the mother standing on the other side, opposite the door.

The hardest part is to not cry in front of these wonderful children who have been struck with incredible bad luck and a terrible illness.

When I entered, with a "Ho ho ho!" The mother looked up to me and our eyes met. She looked straight into my eyes and I looked into hers. Time froze for a brief second. I had an epiphany. I had a revelation and manifestation of the essence of this woman's life flash before my eyes; not only was that her baby dying on the bed, it was part of almost her entire life dying on that bed.

She burst out into tears.

At that second, I could read her mind. This is what it told me....

All her life she was dreaming of becoming a wife and a mother. All her life she was dreaming and waiting for the man who would come along and sweep her away. All her life, since a tiny little girl, she was dreaming of having a child. 

Since she was a little girl of 4 or 5 years old, she had that dear baby who was laying on the bed. She played with that baby, as a toy doll, when she was a small child. She had even named that baby when she, herself, was still just a little girl.

When she first met her future husband and fell in love, that baby was already born in her head. She saw the baby and visualized all the wonderful times they would all share. 

The baby would be born and she would be so proud. Her parents and family would be so happy and thankful to god that this special child, this gift that she had been waiting for, planning for, all her life had arrived.

This darling baby that would be born and grow up into a little boy or girl and then go to school and play with the other kids; this child who would grow into an adult and then repeat the cycle and then mom would become a grandmother.

This child who would care for mom when she would become too old and frail to care for herself. This child who would be a reason for living...

But then, one day, soon after birth, the happy parents saw that something was wrong. Perhaps the child didn't react the way most children would. Or perhaps the child didn't seem to respond to cuddling or care....

It soon became apparent and, against all hope and prayers, at the hospital, this darling treasure would be diagnosed with an incurable illness.

That poor baby! 

And that poor mother! 

All those dreams dashed on the rocks: No first shoes; no kindergarten; no elementary school; no dentist appointments; no birthday parties; no family vacations; no family dinners; no high school; no first dates; no dances; no college; no marriage; no babies (grand children) being born; no intimate hugs and mom-to-child talks; none of these things. 

Everything, all those dreams, gone.

When you stop to look at it this way, then you can see that this isn't just a baby on that bed, it is that dear woman's life...

She had dreamed of so many things and so many wonderful times together that mom and baby would share over the years....

One of the dreams was baby's first Christmas... And, of course, that first Christmas dream was celebrating at a warm home with loving parents and family and friends. Santa would visit at home and climb down the chimney for the little child. That's the way it is supposed to be.

It is a sort of real-life horror show if baby's first Christmas has Santa visiting in a white room in a cold hospital....

I wish and pray to God that I am not a part of any first Christmas for any baby and mom at any Hospital for Children with incurable diseases or terminal illnesses again. But, I know I will and I know that I must.

.........

Every time, after greeting all children at Christmas, when I say "Goodbye" I also tell them that, "Santa is coming to see you next year and I am coming to see you at your house so have cookies and milk ready!" Then I smile, say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and wave goodbye. I pray and hope that this comes true... But, I suspect, in far too many cases, it does not...

Sigh... 

If there is anything at all that I can try to do to bring even one minute of happiness to these people and children, I pray that God gives me the strength to help.

--------------

Recently, I found a new charity that I think is doing a wonderful job for children with cancer. It is called Shine On Kids. Shine On Kids have all sorts of wonderful support efforts for kids and their parents to remain strong and positive.

One of my favorite things they do is a dog named Bailey as part of their "Facility Dog" program. Bailey is the most wonderful and gentle dog you could ever hope to meet. Bailey goes to children's hospitals and gives children something to look forward to everyday.

Barney "speaks" to these kids.

Trust me, I speak from experience; the best and most powerful medicine for curing cancer is having a positive attitude and something to look forward to.

Please check out the webpage for Shine On Kids here: http://www.sokids.org/en/

Tell them Mike sent you.

Rant: What I Dislike About Many Greens and Environmentalists - Understanding Human Motivations

Let me start off by saying that we need to protect the environment. We need to keep the beaches, rivers, lakes and land clean. We need to take care of ourselves and our earth for our children and their children and their children's children. But we also need to wake up and see what is really important in our lives.

Snowing like crazy in Tokyo... Global warming, don't you know?

Now to the point: I'm really fed up with self-righteous militant and nearly militant Greens and Environmentalists. I am sick and tired of their ignorant and ill considered ideas. I am really disgusted by their "holier than thou" attitude and thinking that they are always right and you are always wrong. They are just as bad as religious zealots: I don't mind someone having their religion and their beliefs. Great! Do as they wish. But do not try to push these beliefs on me or other people. I really don't like their abrasive and antagonistic attitudes.


I also wonder just how stupid these people can be. On one hand they will complain about the government being completely corrupt and in bed with big business when it comes to things like nuclear accidents and BP oil spills... Or banking corruption and the destruction of the working class... Yet, on the other hand, they want the government to tax us so that they can take care of the environment? Astounding!


This is a government, in Japan's case for exapmple, that can't even handle the bookkeeping properly and now has the country on the ledge of bankruptcy and people want to give them more money!? That would be like handing care of your household finances to a crack addict and expecting that he will take care of things properly. 


Today it is snowing and it is snowing hard. This is at least the sixth time this year it has snowed in Tokyo. This is the hardest and deepest snow I have ever seen here. In the 27 years I have been here it has never snowed more than twice in any winter. Most winters it doesn't snow at all; and if it does, the snow melts immediately upon hitting the ground. But this is at least six times in one year! To illustrate the rarity of this more, just one month ago, on Jan. 24, it snowed more than 4 cm in Tokyo and that was the most snow in 6 years. Today's snow is much more than that!  

Thousands of people have died in Europe, almost 100 in Japan, because of this winters cold and snow... It is the coldest winter in nearly 30 years... But is it a fluke? Nope. Just two years ago, they said the winter of 2009 ~ 2010 was devastatingly cold. This year, 2012, is the death of the Global Warming Cult. R.I.P.


The rule of thumb is that if there is a crisis and the government comes along and says, "pay us more money and we'll take care of it for you." Then a wise person (and I do mean wise and intelligent experienced and thoughtful person) would automatically become suspicious. Trust me. Over 3 decades in the mass media and many years as a station news director makes me much more of an expert on that than any university professor.


Trust that everything you see or hear is told to you by someone who has a motivation for it. If it is on TV or media or in publications, then you can pretty much be safe in assuming that there is a strong profit motivation. If it comes from any government or quasi-government source (that includes your government, the UN, the IPCC, etc.) then you can be 100% sure there is a profit motivation. Motivation is the key word. If you do not understand this simple concept then educate yourself right now with this short video. It's a simple course in Praxeology, the science of understanding the purposeful behavior of human beings:  

Yesterday I posted about some Japanese kids terrorizing some monkeys in a zoo. In Japan, this didn't make national news. Please refer to: Kids Acting Like Animals Have to Apologize to Animals:


It also shows a good thing about Japan: Even though these kids were drinking underage and throwing fireworks, nobody claims that stricter laws need to be made for firework sales or alcohol sales.

Everyone knows that these kids were just causing trouble. People in Japan generally don't think about passing laws to try to make people into good human beings.


My point was that, in the west, people are confused with the role of government and personal responsibility. One intelligent reader also pointed out that, had this been in the west, it would have hit national news with an outpouring of sympathy for these animals and a public outcry for severe punishment meted out:


If this happened in the UK or US, the response would have been tremendous, and out of all proportion compared to the effects.


Since the animals were at a zoo, and therefore famous; the sentencing would be much more severe for the perpetrators, because the media would drum up the war chant of “murder the marauders who caused mayhem to the monkeys!” Plus in our modern era, what else is there in life, but to become famous? To be blunt, how else could a judge or attorney become famous, but to listen to the mob, and give them what they want?

In a similar city, there would probably be hundreds of poor homeless people that nobody cares about, and who would've wound up eating out of rubbish skips, and sleeping under bridges...


The militant Greens will gladly destroy people, property, business and lives to save the earth... They wouldn't lift a finger to save a human life. Here's an example: When making a program satire of the entire Global Warming Debate (being neither pro nor con) in 2007, an irate listener called the broadcast station and threatened to, 


"Come down to the broadcast station and set it on fire and kill everyone inside!"


I laughed and told him that,


"Please come along and try. I will be waiting for you alongside the local police and the fire department."


We never heard from him again. That was in Tokyo. Like I said, this has been one of the coldest winters in a long time... I wonder if he is still thinking about running around and setting buildings on fire? If he is, it's probably just to stay warm.


There are many, far too many of these militant (may I say frickin' crazy) people running around. They will violently protest the killing of 600 non-endangered species of dolphins in Japan (because, as the reader commented they are "famous" - and animals are "cute") but I don't see them protesting their own countries involvement with US and NATO bombing and the starvation tactics and killing of millions of Iraqi people and children...


Or for another example, there are people who are taking dog and cat food to the Fukushima disaster area to feed strays. I don't get it. There's 400,000 people there with lives shattered. Thousands of children have lost parents and siblings. Tens of thousands are still live in temporary shelters and these people are spending their time helping stray animals? 


If you think that organizations like PETA do a good job, think again. Read this:
PETA kills more than 95% of all animals in its care.


Where are these twisted people's priorities? (Watch the video again: Money).


I am not pleased about this killing of pets or dolphins either, but instead of going and fighting about that, I have, for example, thousands of children with incurable diseases like deadly cancer that need help in my back yard right now. Pardon me for having twisted priorities but I think I'll spend my time helping handicapped and crippled and terminally ill kids... I can't stop people from feeding the animals or pigeons in the park, but I have to wonder where their priorities are.  

If you are going to talk the talk, walk the walk...

People have got to start thinking with their analytical minds, if they have any left. There was a time, several years ago, I was having a discussion with an extremely confused German friend. He insisted that,


"We need the government to make rules outlawing guns."


I completely disagreed. He then added,


"If the government doesn't make laws outlawing guns, then crazy and dangerous people will have guns!"


"You mean, like they do now?" I retorted.


If you believe that guns cause crimes and murders then you must believe that cameras cause child pornography. 


Personally, I don't think so. (By the way, Canada has many more guns per capita than the USA and does not have a gun murder problem so don't tell me that the USA problem is because of guns.)


Like, I said, people need to open their eyes and stop taking the propaganda they hear and see as gospel truth... 


The best thing would be for people to start thinking for themselves. But that might be asking for too much.


NOTE: It warms my heart to see other writers who think along the same lines as I do. Here's one of my favorites with an article that just came out. His name is James Delingpole: Why I am so rude to Warmists

Here's a TV report about today's snow: