Dialysis And Coming Together

When you think you have troubles if you just look around you will find others that may look normal but have far more difficulty than you do. As I sit here and listen to Carol talk with a friend of hers whose heart is failing her and has several physical problems I realize just how fortunate we are and what we take for granted - when we should not do so.

Her friends heart, liver and kidneys are failing her and they want to administer dialysis to her. That reminded me of a fishing partner of long ago in Gainesville, Florida when I was claim manager for Hartford Insurance Group. Bill Burwell was a plaintiff attorney that was on the opposite side of the table from what I did as a Claim Manager. By all rights we should not have gotten along as our positions were always opposed to each other. The problem was that I liked Bill and he liked me and we both liked to fish.

So against all odds we were friends away from work. It was the same with another plaintiff attorney named Eric Wagner. In spite of going at it tooth and nail in hearing rooms or court rooms when we walked out the door we were friends again.

One time I went to pick up Bill to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. When I arrived at his house his wife said he wasn't able to go for another hour. So she and I had coffee and I learned that Bill's kidneys were not working and he had to take dialysis every three days. Since Bill was a vet the VA provided him a machine at his house and as we spoke and drank our coffee he was hooked up to that machine having his blood cleaned. Bill was hooked up to the machine 12 hours at a time and during that time he could not go to sleep. So Bill had worked the previous day, been hooked up to his machine for 12 hours and as soon as he got off the machine he would go fishing with me. It still chokes me up to think of what he sacrificed to go fishing with me. Out there on the hot Gulf of Mexico sharing stories, laughing, having fun and catching a few fish; he had to be totally exhausted.

So when I heard Carol talking to her friend I had a flash back to my time with Bill. I also used to go fishing with Eric and again while we were tooth and nail for our respective sides we couldn't be better friends when we were not working.

Then I watched the President talk tonight. I wonder if it is somewhat the same with them. Fishing is one thing and letting the country go down the drain while they argue is another. Even though Bill and Eric and I were friends off work, I have no doubt that if as much was riding on the outcome of our dealings with each other, we could have done the same in our business affairs and that is come to some reasonable solution. Probably in a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder why our elected officials can't do the same. Maybe they need to go fishing - it worked for me and I had great times with my opponents and also my good friends. We shared good stories, jokes, lunch, beer and had a great time in the process.

Just my thoughts, and maybe trying to out fish each other would break the ice and they could get along when they really need to.