{Originally published on “Et tu?“}

For whatever reason, I keep stumbling across blogs by mothers who are battling cancer lately.

One of the things that’s most striking about every one of them is how much looking through their posts highlights how fragile life is, and how little control we really have over our destinies. The post at the bottom of the page, from last Wednesday, might be titled something like “Feeling great!” and recount high hopes and improving health. And then the latest post, from today, might be titled “Bad news” and tell of dire test results and the choking realization that the author will probably not live to see her children grow up.

Just now I was doing my usual blog reading during the
kids’ naptime, and I came across yet another blogger who just received
a grave cancer diagnosis. She’s a mother, she’s not even 30 yet, and
there’s a good chance that she doesn’t have a lot more time.

Oddly, I was able to keep a stiff upper lip through most of the post, until she got to the part about all the plans she had: how she had her life neatly in place, her plans for the next few years all settled, and this diagnosis completely derailed everything. Nothing seems within her control any longer, and that’s one of the things she’s struggling with the most.

Originally posted on Blogging Sueblimely

Words of wisdom from the world’s greatest thinkers are timeless
providing advice which is as relevant now as when first spoken. All of
these quotes could easily be applied to blogging:

Advice for Bloggers

1. They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carl W. Buechner
2. When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. Dale Carnegie
3. Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It
   is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. The ability to speak eloquently is not to be confused with having something to say. Michael P. Hart
5. My opponent can compress the most words into the fewest ideas of anyone I’ve ever known. Abraham Lincoln
6. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling
7. You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. Albert Einstein
8. I don’t let my mouth say nothin’ my head can’t stand. Louis Armstrong

Research Tips

1. First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. Epictetus
2. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not
   believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
   not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your
   religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of
   your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they
   have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and
   analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is
   conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and
   live up to it. Buddha

Writing Tips

1. What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Samuel Johnson
2. Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they
   will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above
   all, accurately so they will be guided by its light. Joseph Pulitzer

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