So when you walk into the room of a highly successful 40 year old General Mills Executive with a beautiful wife, and has two adorable boys - who was just diagnosed with Leukemia - you might expect some crazy emotions running around free in the room. That's a guy who has a lot to lose. That's a guy who has probably been so high for so long, that news like this would have to be accompanied by an epic freefall. right?
Well maybe not. I'm constantly being surprised by people here at the hospital, but this particular General Mills exec might have taken the cake for surprises. He didn't act like a person whose life was spinning out of control or like he was in free fall. He acted like a person with solid grounding who was in touch with the core things in a person's life.
The first time I tried to visit him, he was sitting in his room watching TV - a blond haired boy on either side of his hospital bed. He asked me to come back the next morning. So I did. The next morning with his children at home and his wife by his side I stopped to visit and had a remarkable visit with him. What struck me wasn't his strength is such a trying time, it was his openness and vulnerability. He cried multiple times during our visit, but his tears weren't about the disease that had taken over his life. His tears were about the overwhelming support that he had received in the short time that he had been aware of his illness. I could tell that this was a remarkably humbling thing for him.
And when talking about the disease, he showed little except for resoluteness. He shed his tears over leukemia - to be sure - but when I saw him he displayed a remarkable lack of self pity. His disease was not about to redefine his character or his identity. Yet it was also apparent that he had the humility to allow it to change his life. He talked with me today about how this experience was an opportunity for him and how he could use it to raise awareness about the disease. He was one week in, and already he was able to find the blessing growing of the illness.
To be sure, I was both humbled, and inspired.
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