TTS: Have A Good Thought

As I've mentioned before, my father immigrated to Canada from Italy at the age of 25. He didn't know the language, he didn't have much money, and he didn't have a marketable skill (he was a farmer, which in Canada's climate, is not as valuable as it was back home). Whenever I think about that story, I can't help but think that my father was fearless for making that decision.

Today, however, my father is scared.

Rose Rosse by Massimo Ranieri
At 1pm, my father is having spinal surgery. He is 73 years old, and has never spent a night in the hospital unless you count the fact that my sister was born at 3:30am and he was there all night.

He's scared, and as much as I'd like to say that I'm not, I am scared too. There is a risk that he won't walk again, although according to the surgeon there is an equal or greater risk of that if he doesn't have the surgery.

If I wasn't an agnostic, I'd probably ask for people to pray; but since I'm an agnostic, I will say that if your beliefs entail that prayer is appropriate in this situation, then by all means do it if you are so inclined. Instead, I'll take the Sipowicz approach, and ask you to "have a good thought" for him this afternoon.

Update: see above; his surgery was canceled today.

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If you're looking for something less depressing, you can head over to my review blog, where I am writing about sharing something from my childhood with my daughter.