Dear Friends,
It has been about six weeks since I posted and I understand that this has been a) a violation of 'blog etiquette', and b) disconcerting to many of you who have texted, emailed, and called Donna and asked, "Is Will OK?". On both accounts I plead guilty and apologize for not opening my computer and letting y'all know what has been going on in my pursuit of life, liberty, and clarity. I hope you will chalk it up to being busy, traveling through 24 states, and age. I am pleased to be back with you and to update you on what has been going on in my life.
I am first grateful to share with you that I made all of my lecture stops this late Summer and Fall while having one surgery, one MRI, 2 PET Scans, 4 Doctor's appointments, and four chemo infusion treatments, the last of which was November 3rd. This includes visits to California State University San Bernardino, The Oregon School Resource Officers Association, Drury University MO, Elmhurst College IL, Iowa State University IA, The University of Redlands CA, Whitman College WA, Linfield College OR, Seattle University WA, Western Oregon University OR, Eastern Oregon University OR, Northwest College WY, Southwest Oregon Community College OR, The University of Alabama AL, and Northern Michigan University MI. I am thankful to have had the invitations and the warm receptions from the students and professionals at these institutions.
Amazing experiences during this time reinforced my core belief that at their center, the great and grand majority of people are good hearted and caring human beings. Mark Hartley and the SOAR Leaders at CSUSB made a video for me sharing what my message had meant to them and wishing and praying for me good health and recovery. They then signed me up for three more years! The President of Elmhurst College told me he and his staff would be praying for me. The Oregon School Resource Officers allowed my daughter Christa to do part of my lectures because of my fatigue at the time. She was magnificent! At Iowa State student after student and my friends Liz Kurt, Sarah Merrill, Tom Hill, and Jeff Johnson hugged me and offered not only their prayers and encouragement, but a contract for two more years as their Destination Iowa State speaker. Do you know what that means to a guy with cancer? It is called Hope! Dean Burgess and her staff at Redlands changed their schedule to accommodate my travel and invited me back for next year! One of the Redlands parents took off her religious medal and said, "I want you to have this. Mother Theresa gave it to me when I worked with her and I want you to have it." I was stunned and speechless, which in the latter case, doesn't happen very often. Dean Cleveland and Barbara Maxwell at Whitman welcomed me back for my 28th visit to campus and at one point there were four men, the Dean and I included, who were or had battled cancer sharing together. It was inspiring. VP Dan Preston at Linfield College and the new students gave me an online shout out video to get well from the Wildcats. Dr. Sparky Reardon led the Phi Delta Theta National Fraternity Leadership School in a selfie to wish me health and healing. Laurie Prince and the 'Red Shirts' (Orientation Staff) offered their prayers and hugs. At Western and Eastern Oregon Universities, I saw many students that I had known since their elementary school days and again, prayers, good thoughts, and hugs greeted me. On the way to Northwest College in Wyoming, Donna and I spent two days in Jackson Hole at the Jenny Lake Lodge where we lived almost thirty years ago and broke bread with our friends David and Kathy, and Debbie and John. A trip to Coos Bay, Oregon took me to SWOCC for the second year and reinforced my belief in the power of community colleges to give students a great start.
The last two schools I visited are freshest in my mind and merit a new paragraph. Marie Robbins, Associate Athletic Director/SWA invited me down to speak to student athletes at the University of Alabama. I have been going down to Tuscaloosa for over 20 years and was once again bowled over by the hospitality, kindness, and goodness of the students and staff at Bama. Because it is the South, student athletes speak freely of their spirituality and family lives, and hundred of students offered their prayers and stories of their own family's battles with cancer. One track athlete said to me, "Dr. Keim, my Dad died of melanoma." I said, "I'm sorry. Throw me a bone here." He said, "The reason I told you that is he lived 19 years after his diagnosis." I said, "Your Dad just helped me have hope." He said, "You will be in my prayers." A young woman shared the story of her Mother's cancer and that she was having Treatment 4 of 12 this week. We just cried together. I was able to have dinner with my dear friends David and Sarah Patterson who retired this year as Gymnastics Coaches at Alabama. They have won National Championships, 8 SEC titles, and remain deeply spiritual and humble. They have raised two great daughters and shaped several generations of student athletes. I visited the home of Dana Duckworth, new Head Coach of Gymnastics, and caught up with Bryan Raschilla, Associate Head Coach, whose two children are likely to be Division One student athletes as well. Patrick Murphy, Ally Habetz, and Stephanie VanBrakle invited me out to the magnificent softball complex and I was able to view a Fall Ball double header. I have often said that I love Oregon, but I would consider moving to Tuscaloosa just to spend more time with David Patterson and Patrick Murphy. To have achieved what they have accomplished and be rooted in humility and spirituality is amazing to me. I am blessed to call them, and the above mentioned Crimson Tide Coaches and Administrators, friends. Throw in Baumhower's Wings and Wangs, and Dreamland Ribs, and the Tide be Rollin'! The cherry on the Alabama sundae for me was a letter from Head Football Coach Nick Saban thanking me for my work with students and wishing me health and his very best. He is a little busy as you know but took time to send a personal letter. I framed it for my study!
For 25 years, I have been going to Northern Michigan University to be their Leader in Residence for the Student Leader Fellowship Program. I went back this year late in October and stayed with the now retired Dave and Sandy Bonsall. I finally got them to come visit Oregon this Fall and they brought 11 Yoopers with them. The Upper Peninsula (UP, ergo Yoopers) breeds a friendship and family based on being hardy in the face of the most severe weather nature can muster and Lake Superior can reinforce. If you know one Yooper, then their friends are your friends, and it was with great happiness that we greeted the Superior 13 to our home for dinners, wine tasting, and a trip to the Oregon Coast. John and Pat made Pasties for 30 from scratch, and we met great, great people. At one point, Dave's former roommate Paul, surveying our walls, said, "Softball is important to you." I said, "Yes, my daughter Sami and I coach together and she is a National Champion." He said, "My cousin coaches softball." I said, "Where?" Paul said, "Alabama." I asked, "Is your cousin Patrick Murphy?" He said, "Have you heard of him?" :):):) Small world. When I returned to NMU at the invitation of my friends Jon Barch and Rachel Harris, The Superior 13 had a wine and cheese party for me at the home of Jack and Stormin' Norma overlooking Lake Superior and then dinner at the Casa Calabria for steaks and shells. A trip to Jon's cabin on a beautiful lake in the woods and ribs with Dave out in the middle of nowhere made the trip very special. Sandy's Mother Grandma Viv came up from Menominee and at 90 years old is rocking the casbah. She takes no prisoners and made me stay up to watch Letterman with her. I want to thank the Superior 13 for their hospitality and for buying a copy of Welcome To The Time Of Your Life for each of the 65 Student Leader Fellows. It was very generous of them. The trip was made perfect by a coffee and muffins date at Baby Cakes with retired Professor John Argeropoulos who is a vital engaging man who helped me write Welcome and whose Granddaughter is now a Student Leader Fellow.
In between Alabama and Northern Michigan I surprised Donna, her Mom Mary, and her sisters Regina and Patty in Florida on Saint George Island in the middle of their 7800 mile trip to see relatives and friends across America. Dubbed "Giggles Across America" by Grandma Mary, we stayed with Aunt Ruth and Cousins Ernie and Ruth on the Island. Ernie took us out into the gulf for some fishing and we saw sea turtles and dolphins. We ate a bunch of oysters and fish in Apalachicola
and had some great family time. Aunt Ruth offered a dinner prayer that was so eloquent and touching, telling God that cancer had taught me many lessons with which I could help students in my speeches, and that I had learned them, but now it was time for Him to heal me. It was powerful and heartfelt and she is a beautiful lady and a gracious host.
So there you have it...the story of my life, liberty, and pursuit of clarity. This week I will sit down with my oncologist in Portland, Dr. Matt Taylor, who will go over the PET scan with me and assess the progress of my treatment and dis-ease. I ask for your prayers. I attended Mass last Friday with my friend Tim and he and Father Robert Silva continue to enlist the Catholic Community in prayer for me. After my Doctor's appointments this week, Donna, our Granddaughter Addie, and I will head down to Templeton, California to Ed and Mary Konopa's home to participate and be witness to a Celebration of Life for Steve Konopa, Ed's brother, who died of cancer last month. It will be challenging for me because I knew and admired Steve, so I decided to take my wonderful three year old font of happiness, Addie with us.
One last request, for now...tomorrow I will be meeting with the Resident Assistants at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon to try to help them make sense of the death of Parker Moore, a football player and RA who was stabbed to death Saturday evening. He was on rounds and went across the street from campus to grab a sandwich and was attacked by a deranged stranger. The attacker returned to the scene as the paramedics were attempting to save him, was identified by witnesses, and confronted by police. Brandishing his knife again, the attacker was shot to death.
Please pray for Parker, his parents, and his friends who are grieving and suffering their son's and friend's death. The football team is reeling as well. Prayers would be greatly appreciated.
My mission for the remainder of my life came to me mid-speech at Alabama to the track and field teams. When I heard it in my head, I stopped, and immediately shared it with them. Now you. My vocation at this time, as I understand it, is to teach the lessons cancer has taught me without any else having to get the dis-ease, or be faced with a tragedy like Parker's, and know right now right here how precious each of them is and how precious each second of their lives are. We all take our lives for granted and worry about the silliest things. For me, cancer was like a hand that came into the cage of comfortableness I was living in, grabbed the treadmill I was on, stopped it, and said, "Hey. Pay attention." I want the students to be able to get this in their twenties and create lives based on being in the moment each and every day. When I ask audiences, "How many of you have had cancer in your family?", over 85% of the hands go up. We are in this together. Most of us have been touched.
I plan to use the speech gifts God has given me to inspire, comfort, and give hope to people that they can change from regretting the past, being fearful of the future, and move forcefully and wholly into the present moment. Right now, right here.
Thank you for reading this. I will more briefly let you know this week what the PET scan and Dr. Taylor tell me, and how the Linfield presentation went with the RAs. We are all one phone call away from our knees, and yet we all have so much to be thankful for. Again, I am thankful for all the love you have shown me. In my next blog, I will tell you about the efforts a group of former Resident Assistants have put forth to help Donna and I and the family. It just might restore your faith in people!
Blessings,
Will Keim
