Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Shobana and I have a friend, she has cancer. Stage 4. She is currently kicking the crap out of it. We have never met a more positive person. We try and meet once a week with her. Not for her, for us. I mean yes, we go to be supportive, loving and show our friendship, but we get more from the visits than she does. I think.

When she talks about her Chemo, she is excited. “It’s so good!” she says. “I am embracing it with love and joy!”

When we look at her with a perplexed look as if to say, “Really? Love and Joy? Chemo?” She always replies, “Of course, I have to. What else is there to do?”

This her second go-around with Cancer and she is always maintained her positivity. This is not new to her. Her Chemo is intense, every week for 14 weeks. She is always fashionable with the coolest and cutest hats to hide her hair loss. I love her attitude. It’s infectious.

Now, don’t get me wrong. She would trade everything for being healthy, not having Cancer. She is however, hopeful.

Hope.

A doctor, while discussing her prognosis, told her he didn’t want to give her “false hope”. To which she replied, “Please do give me all the false hope you want. What else is there!”

She’s not delusional, she’s not being ignorant. She is however clinging to those four letters, that one word. Hope.

Isn’t amazing that the smallest things, the simplest ideas have sometimes the most amazing and powerful impact? Like 4 letter words. Even the bad ones, have four letters. Here’s my list of my favorite 4 letter words:

HOPE
KIND
LIKE
HOME
PLAY
CARE
GIVE
SOUL
PRAY
LIFE
FOOD
TRUE
HELP
JOYS
BEST

and of course.. LOVE.

If we lived each day with those words as a check list. An inventory of our our attitude, the world would be better because we would be better.

Today I am hopeful and better because I know that each of us has the ability to be better. Everyday.

Will you?