Perspective

As much as I complain about things, there are some things that remind me that things could be worse. Yes, I know that sounds cliché also. We have a client that was in 3 car accidents between February to April of 2006. 3 of them! & the response is “why is she such a poor driver?” She wasn’t! The accidents were caused by the other drivers! How do I know that? I have the car accident report and the other drivers were given traffic tickets (arrests) for slamming into our client's vehicle.

It got worse for her. She had her teaching degree delayed as a result of missing so many days from student teaching. She suffered severe neck pain, bulged vertebrae discs, back injuries, knee injuries. She ended up going to over 30 different hospitals and clinic as a result of her 3 car accidents. The lawyer told me yesterday, that at this time, 2 yrs. after the accidents, she is still treating. I’m preparing written answers to opposing attorney’s written questions. Instead of it taking less than a day to answer the questions, it’s taking me about 3 days. With so many different treaters and clinics, I've had to read 100s of pages of medical records and bills.

Also, I want to write about my cousin, Brendan Scanlon (a/k/a Solve). Brendan was born in 1983. He went to college in Chicago as an artist and had a really good job at a marketing firm applying his artistic skills. He also was in a pretty big community of street artists and was very well known. Last Saturday, he got into an argument with another man about his age. He ended up being held down by 4 men and stabbed to death. My heart goes out to him for the horror that the last minutes of his life brought to him. I was really amazed at how well known my cousin was. There were so many people writing in that paid their respects, so many memories and good times he created with/for other people. It was just staggering. My heart also goes out to his family. His family was extremely close knit. In fact, their family and my family gets together each August, and we have a great time. I wasn’t really close to him and unfortunately, didn’t keep in touch with him. I saw him every year at these family gatherings. I remember a few years ago, giving him bottle rockets which I had a large supply of and wanted to give away. He was very happy to get them.
There are a few websites to check out regarding his very untimely death:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-graffiti-artist-killedjun16,0,4570734.story

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/291765

& there is an especially good one which shows you how many people paid respects to him from the Chicago street art community and shows you a picture of the memorial built for my cousin. My kids and I saw the memorial Monday evening.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/chicagostreetart/discuss/72157605605470754/

No matter how bad it is, someone else is having it worse.