Stonecrop

It's two days til Tish gets here and this morning she sent me a text from the 'Free CS Lewis Quotes', a daily App she subscribes to I suppose. Here it is:

'Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.  God is holding back to give us that chance.  It will not last forever.  We must take it or leave it.'  

CS Lewis is significant in this our story in so, so many ways.   

Tish chose.  She chose to leave two sons, a job she has worked for 13 years and a town that she has lived in for 42 years for this cause.  

The Fuzzybutts and I were recently in Maine and we happened upon a architectural marvel pictured nearby somewhere between Cape Neddick and Ogunguit.

Stonecrop was built in the 1920s by the singular determination and vision of a woman named Grace Merrill, stone by stone, and beam by beam that she reclaimed from old barns and farms in the area.    

She's an inspiration to us all.  

Summer of Murphy Tour is ON

The Fuzzybutts and I are taking a couple of weeks off and the tour will pick back up after Labor Day in Memphis TN and here are the other 22 cities on the tour and approximate dates.  

09.06. Little Rock  AR

09.07 Denison TX

09.08 Belton TX

09.09 - 09.10 San Antonio TX

09.11-09.13. Austin TX

09.12 - Presenting at the Pet Sitter's International Conference in Austin

09.14 Albuquerque NM

09.16 - 09.21 Las Vegas NV

09.20 First Annual Puppy Up Charity Golf Tournament in Las Vegas

09.22 - 09.25 Denver CO

09.26 Garden City KS

09.28 Liberty MO

09.29 Chicago IL

10.03 Indianapolis IN

10.05 Cincinnati OH

10.07 Fairborn OH

10.08 Columbus OH

10.10 Pittsburgh PA

10.12 New Castle PA

10.13 Monessen PA for their Puppy Up Walk

10.15 Clinton NJ

10.16 Jersey City, NJ

10.18 New Milford CT

10.20 Madison CT

Stay posted here as we schedule event dates and time in each city.  

Japan. Je ne sais quoi

Why walk across Japan?  

The first most obvious reason is that cancer is pandemic and I must take our message and mission international and next year I go to do just that.  

The second reason is Japan is the most progressive society when it comes to animal rights.  When you lose a companion animal federal law mandates a day off for mourning.  Having been there before, it's more than that.  I saw the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station (LINK) and his story has stayed with me since even well before Malcolm first came into my life.

Japan is also a technologically advanced society and it'll be a fact finding mission for me about canine cancer as well.  What's the incidence and prevalence of cancer?  What is the exposure to environmental risks and what's the difference in diet and nutrition?  These things I shall discover.  

There are a few other reasons that, well, I'll talk about later.  

The nearby image is a picture I crudely drew in my moleskin of our next challenge, walking from the Southern most island, Kyushu, to the Northern most, Hokkaido.  From cape to cape it's roughly 2,000 miles.  

Ten Days Til Tish

Today bears some significance in this our story.  In less than a fortnight, Tish will travel to Boston to be a part of Team Fuzzybutts, setting aside a year of her life to tell this story and leave behind a family in Texas to do so.   

I had asked her to write a blog in her own words about the implications of her decision but it became too personal.  So I'm writing it in her stead... until she's ready to jump in.     

I know the feeling.  When I committed to March as our launch date 2008 some months earlier, it was pretty intense emotionally and spiritually.  And it was lonely, too.

My brothers thought I'd gone off to the loony bin and my father was sternly against it from a medical risk standpoint.  It's difficult to undo decades of being a doctor to be a dad.  The week leading up to our launch I got a call from him just about every night lecturing me about ticks, mosquitoes, and all the diseases they bear and how he wouldn't support the walk because of the dangers.  

Hell, even my oldest friend wouldn't back us even though I had put together a pretty thorough spreadsheet for success. But the hardest thing was leaving my mom who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's the year leading up to the walk. 

And yet when Hudson, Murphy and I left Walter E. Long Park March 16th, my entire family was there to see us off.  

I hope Tish's family steps up and sends her off the same way but if not, it's up to us to welcome her with open arms as making such a sacrifice does not come without controversy and internal strife.  Nothing great ever did.

The War of 2012

I spent yesterday on a cruise of the Tall Ships in Boston Harbor, which sailed here from around the world to commemorate the 200 year anniversary of the War of 1812.  It was absolutely stunning as the pics portray but it was as equally informative.

I profess a previous ignorance as to the significance of this chapter in our history but I am now enlightened.  And inspired.   (Warning this is a nerd rant.)

The war of Independence established our freedom from tyranny and oppression but the war of 1812, for the first time, defended it.    And it all had to do with the open seas.  Back then our survival as a new nation depended on international mercantilism, the inflow and outflow of people and technology, something that the UK took exception to.

They didn't beat us the first time so they thought they could put a stranglehold on us by regulating maritime commerce.  Basically, they tried to beat the sh*t out of us into submission by sinking our ships.

It didn't work and we did not submit.

This history lesson has inspired me that although we were founded by people who took risks, though sadly we are now governed by those who only mitigate them.  The vast majority of legislators today are lawyers who create laws to justify their space in office and ill equipped to defend us against the greatest modern threat.  

Let me be clear, we are still at war though the threat isn't from cannon fire or fodder, it's cancer.  Cancer is the sum of all of our fears; it's global and is no contender of age, ethnicity, gender, or species and it's time for us to collectively work to eradicate it.