When Heroes Arise.

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Tim
     When heroes arise, what does that look like? What kind of form do they come in? Are they the kind you would expect? Or are they not what we imagined, more average than strong, more street smart than book smart. Do they always have to be in the image of the gladiator taking on the lion, or the super hero taking on the villain? Is it always the sports star that comes up with the big play in a game when his team really needs him. I think most of these examples are of the “Hollywood” variety and not real life. In dire circumstances the person actions influences the out come, that would be the basic idea of a hero. A hero steps into an event and tries to alters history for a person or a group of people.     The dictionary define a hero as the following:
1. “A man of distinguished courage of ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.”
2. “A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: “He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.” I think this may give a general answer, but not the kind of specific I wanted to talk about. I think a hero arises out of need, a situation or event that begs for intervention to alter the out come.

What I mean by historic outcome, is that the eneviable is tradgety, death or calmity. The hero my not completely save or alter the situation. They my fail in their attempt to save, but nonetheless, the act is heroic. One of the best examples of a hero is the mother of a child with a disease, whatever the disease is. The heroes I interact with the most is what we call a “D-Mom”; the mother of a child with diabetes, and their care is needed 24 hours a day.

Caring for a child with Juvenile Diabetes takes much time and effort. You don’t “give them there shots, and  watch how much starches they eat”, the care is much different than that. Someone with Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes needs insulin injections to survive. First order in taking care of a child with this condition is counting carbs (all fruits, all grain and some vegetables, of course anything with sugar), this takes some figuring based on what the child eats and their weight. Then there is the finger pricks before meals, after naps, before bed, before naps, before playtime, and about any other time when blood sugar is suspected of not being in line. Many check blood sugars in middle of the night because of what is called “Dead in Bed” or Nocturnal Hypoglycemia. I could go on with their duties, but I think you get the point. Without the care provided by the D-Mom the out come would be a reduced quality of life, chronic health issues or death. I believe D-Moms alter history by their selfless deeds in caring for these children with this life long chronic disease. D-Moms are my some of my favorite heroes.

 



 
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A trip to the Auto Parts store.

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Tim

Now if any of you know me, a trip to the auto parts store is not an uncommon thing for me to do. I fix my own cars, and have since I was 16. I was heading out to pick up a few parts for my car when I thought to my self “hey, I will go to Advance Auto, they are selling shoes for the JDRF“. There I went, going a few miles out of my way, but most of all through some more traffic. But the trip was worth it.

Now I worked in an auto parts store during one of my stints in college, so I love to roam the isles, looking stuff over, and seeing what new things they carrying. Upon arrival, I looked over the counter area, and there they were, shoes, paper shoes the JDRF sells to raise money and awareness of Juvenile Diabetes. I ask the parts guy where the exhaust system parts were. I quickly picked out what I needed and headed to the counter to pay.

I put my parts down and got ready to pay. I told they guy “thank you” for raising money for the JDRF. “Oh, thanks he said” somewhat shocked. I said I raise money for them myself, I have 2 daughters with Juvenile Diabetes. The parts guy told me diabetes ran in his family, many of his family had it, the “other kind” he said. Type 2, I told him, I reassured him the Type 2 was not fun to deal with, and there was much ignorance about Type 2 also. We talked briefly about how both were genetic and the public had many misconceptions about both.

Now this conversation lasted around a minute, just enough time to swipe my debit card. Now they guy standing behind me had a look of complete befuddlement, a daughter of no more than 8 years old he had with him. I wonder what he thought. He had to return to get parts he ordered for his vehicle, I wonder if he will buy a shoe when he returns for his parts. I hope the topic of Juvenile Diabetes comes up again for him, either on TV, conversation or some kind of print media.

I don’t think I made any big impact on Juvenile Diabetes awareness yesterday, but I took what oppertunity I had, and did what I could. I bought 2 shoes (many I have sold myself), I was hoping others would ask what they were about. I also got to tell the story of 2 little girls with bleeding fingers. And maybe that is the best advocating a dad can do.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment