Dispatches from the Disabled List

They say "it takes a village".  But there are times that I think the village isn't anywhere near me, or I've forgotten how to get there.  It's these times when I need someone who can understand where I am and what I'm facing.  So the hell with the village.  I want and need a Wingman.  And I have one. A million years ago I worked for Atari.  It was the strangest and most amazing 3 years of my life.  The last 120 days were spent in the National Accounts, the one place where I was "safe" from all the bodies being thrown overboard.  And it was there, in fashionable Downers Grove, IL, where I met John.  I'll leave his last name out of this, as I'm sure he'd prefer not interacting with the 15 people who read this mess.   John was nothing short of incredible.  In that short time I bonded with him to the extent that after everyone got whacked at Atari I never made a professional move without his counsel.  His reputation is such th...

 I see a therapist.  He and I discuss my mental/emotional state and how I can better mitigate the sturm and drang that I face.  Losing my career well before I planned to left me with an insufficient toolbox to repair the damage caused by my mourning process.  Seeing someone who could give me tools was the only way I figured I'd make it to the other side. Recently I have been talking about all the issues I'm facing.  I have feelings of inadequacy and a certain dread of the future.  Dr. Seth has given me some things to help it along, my favorite being to stop saying "What if?" (as in "What if I have prostate cancer?  What if my ejection fraction doesn't return to a level that will allow me to function?"), and instead say "Even if", as in "Even if I have prostate cancer, it's a relatively manageable type of cancer to have.  And Even if my ejection fraction doesn't improve, I understand my limits and will develop a new set of regimens ...