Anderson Cooper is the Man
This has been a long week.
I picked up Anderson Cooper's book Dispatches from the Edge on Monday. I had been waiting for it to go on sale ($25 can be a crunch in a purchase-heavy month), but I finally used a coupon for Borders from PotterCast (hurry, it expires Oct 29th!). I had barely gotten through half the book by Monday night. People who know me know that I can breeze through a book in no time flat. I did after all finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which is 652 pages) in 8 hours. Anderson's book is only 207 pages, but I didn't finish it until late Tuesday night.
How Anderson has been able to survive is beyond me. Every page is full of heart-wrenching tales reported straight from the front lines. It's not just the wars he's been to or the horrific scenes he's seen, it's the utter raw emotion that keeps the reader engaged. He's had a hard life. Not something you'd expect from a rich pretty boy, but this man has done great things with his life, sometimes at great personal risk and strife. It took so long to read the book because I couldn't keep my eyes from welling up on every page. My heart goes out to him. I know what it's like to lose a loved one to suicide. I know what it's like to try and cut off any contact with life that might trigger a breakdown. I know now why my eyes tear up at the sight, sound, and thought of beauty. Say-say's laughter can bring such emotion to the surface, I have to turn away sometimes to compose myself. That emotion is always lingering just underneath.
My friend who's battling breast cancer has been told this week that she should have chemo as a safeguard. She really wants to come back to work, but the chemo would put her out for months. She has some really hard decisions to make.
Everything I go through on a daily basis seems so small and inconsequential compared to these two brave souls. My week, although long because of the work-drama, seems so petty and not even worth mentioning. All this just makes me wonder what I'm doing with my life. It makes me want to do something so important that it puts the world at peace.
Any suggestions?
I picked up Anderson Cooper's book Dispatches from the Edge on Monday. I had been waiting for it to go on sale ($25 can be a crunch in a purchase-heavy month), but I finally used a coupon for Borders from PotterCast (hurry, it expires Oct 29th!). I had barely gotten through half the book by Monday night. People who know me know that I can breeze through a book in no time flat. I did after all finish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (which is 652 pages) in 8 hours. Anderson's book is only 207 pages, but I didn't finish it until late Tuesday night.
How Anderson has been able to survive is beyond me. Every page is full of heart-wrenching tales reported straight from the front lines. It's not just the wars he's been to or the horrific scenes he's seen, it's the utter raw emotion that keeps the reader engaged. He's had a hard life. Not something you'd expect from a rich pretty boy, but this man has done great things with his life, sometimes at great personal risk and strife. It took so long to read the book because I couldn't keep my eyes from welling up on every page. My heart goes out to him. I know what it's like to lose a loved one to suicide. I know what it's like to try and cut off any contact with life that might trigger a breakdown. I know now why my eyes tear up at the sight, sound, and thought of beauty. Say-say's laughter can bring such emotion to the surface, I have to turn away sometimes to compose myself. That emotion is always lingering just underneath.
My friend who's battling breast cancer has been told this week that she should have chemo as a safeguard. She really wants to come back to work, but the chemo would put her out for months. She has some really hard decisions to make.
Everything I go through on a daily basis seems so small and inconsequential compared to these two brave souls. My week, although long because of the work-drama, seems so petty and not even worth mentioning. All this just makes me wonder what I'm doing with my life. It makes me want to do something so important that it puts the world at peace.
Any suggestions?
posted by Suzy Q @ 12:05 PM
1 comments
