Back to the "Real World"

I'm back from War. I wish I could say that I enjoyed it. I wish I could say that it was relaxing. The best I can say is that "it wasn't work". In the days and weeks leading up to War, several bad things happened. Not to me, mind you, but to those people who are close to me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am VERY affected by what's going on with my friends. War wasn't nearly as good as it should've been. Here's some background (I don't think I'm over sharing, but I could be):

One of my friends found out two weeks before War that his father had been diagnosed with cancer. Not just cancer, but about three to four different kinds of cancer. It was very aggressive and they gave his father weeks, if not days. This friend and his family was supposed to camp with us at the War. It was his intention to camp for the full two weeks. He showed up the first weekend and setup everything he needed in camp. He was ready to try and get away from the stress of life for awhile. The Tuesday morning of the first week, I received a call from his wife. They needed help moving his father to get him ready for a doctors appointment. I spent several hours that morning helping his father out of bed and getting dressed and generally getting ready for his day. This was not the strong person I had known. This was a shell of his former self. After getting everything ready, my friend's wife came to me in tears and said that she thought she should call my friend home to be with his father because his father may not be around after War. Well, my friend came home and wasn't able to spend any time at the War. His tent was there. All his belongings were there, but it was kind of like a ghost town. He came back for tear down weekend to get all of his stuff, but that was it. He wasn't able to enjoy the War, and he had been looking forward to it more than any of my other friends. To make matters worse, his father passed the Tuesday after the War. His father is no longer in pain, and my friend can now begin the healing process. For that, I am grateful. He can begin to mourn and deal with those feelings, but it won't be easy.

That was one story for why the War wasn't as good as it could have been. There were others, but I'll stop today with just that one. On the up side, I'm awaiting the birth of my daughter. I guess there's a circle to this life thing (cue Elton John and a cheesy Disney movie). My wife and I spent the weekend (more my wife than me) getting the nursery ready. We've put up wallpaper, and built cribs and cleaned carpets and arranged toys. It is definitely a begining. That begining has promise. There will be a new life, with new possibilities. That helps to offset the pain of the past month. I can't help but wonder what my daughter's life will hold. Will she be typing to a nameless blog-o-sphere when she is thirty-something years old? I guess only time will tell.