scifiknitter

I have a second blogging gig these days. I'm now writing for lungcancer.net, a new website that is building a community resource. The organizers have reached out to several notable lung cancer patient advocates, and I am proud to also have been asked to write for their site. In April 2017, the American Lung Association sent me to Washington DC to represent New York State for their annual Advocacy Day project. Lung cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers from all 50 states gathered to go to Capital Hill and lobby our Senators and Representatives. We all asked for the same two things: increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, and quality and affordable healthcare for all Americans. We also had a heck of a good time. Here is a link to the post I wrote about my experience for lungcancer.net: Lung Cancer Advocates on Capital Hill: A Report on the American Lung Association's Advocacy Day "What is it like to lobby Congress? You want to make ...

Max Coots died this past week. Some people reading this blog will know who Max was. He was one of the remarkable men I have known. I first met Max almost 37 years ago, when he was minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Canton, NY. I met him because I had attended a UU church in Rochester with my mother, and now I wanted to get married, and I wanted him to marry me to my swain. He warned the young man and me that his marriages didn't always take, and his words were prescient for this particular marriage, which did not survive the transition from college life to real life. Nevertheless, he did a great job with the service, saying many words about what it means to be married that deserved attention. Many years after that Robert and I joined that UU church. Max was retired by then, but he still came back to lead two services every year. For us, those services were not to be missed. It was always a treat to hear his rich voice, his humor, his take on humanity and the instituti...