When people ask me about what weblog writers I’ve met or talked to in person several names of people who became dear friends on the right and left immediately come to mind.
And one of the first is “Vodkapundit,” aka Stephen Green. His was one of the first sites I discovered and loved. Green’s site is a highly popular, libertarian perspective blog not always seeing eye to eye with administration or the Democratic opposition. (Wikipedia HERE). He has taken a strong stand in support of the war in Iraq and the war on terror. But what has set Green apart have been several other things.
He’s famous for his very short posts with comments and links. But quite frequently he’ll also offer long, carefully thought out analyses that make strong points. These pieces are op-ed quality and would probably be bought by any major American daily newspaper. if he chose to offer them. They’re not regurgitations of radio talk show host phrases, or “blogspeak,” or imitating anyone else. They’re packed with logic (which readers can agree or disagree with), passion and advocacy and clearly took a lot of time (and thought).
I seldom have time to leave comments on other blogs, but Green’s writings often compelled me to do just that. And he’d email me back. He was one of the first to link to TMV early on — not as a favor, but because he liked a post — and it wasn’t always one of our political posts: he likes the offbeat. In short, Green became a kind of role model on the importance of offering content and encouraging newcomers. (And, yes, we need to use him as a role model on the virtue of shorter posts…)
But that isn’t the end of the story.
I was in Colorado Springs several years ago for a convention of the Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs and linked up with Green. We went to lunch and had a long, great chat about blogging, political issues, foreign policy and a variety of subjects. It was about 90 minutes long. Green was every bit as charming, sophisticated and thoughtful as his blog indicated. The only difference was: he has a perfectly-pitched radio voice-over voice.
Fast-foward now to winter 2006. A few weeks ago while in a rush I saw an item in InstaPundit about Green assuring people he wasn’t dead. I clicked on the link quickly but had to leave so I hadn’t really read the whole post.
Now I have.
In fact, Green, a proud father of a baby boy, has experienced a severe weight drop and learned he has “probably” has Graves Disease and most likely won’t be writing for a while until he gets his illness more under control.
He has a post that MUST be read IN FULL. We’ll only offer you a few parts here. His opening:
There are people with worse cases of my disease. Those people are all in hospitals. All of us, even the people with tubes in them, will most certainly live. How we do so is up to us. Now that the drugs are having some positive effect, I can tell you about it.
He discusses the disease’ onset: the severe irritability, even rage, the shocking weight loss, how it began to change his life and then:
A couple months or so ago, I started to shake, to tremble. Figured it was all the caffeine and sugar I drank. After giving up cigars and changing my entire diet, giving up coffee and Cokes was almost easy. But the shakes got worse, not better. First my handwriting got comical. Then unreadable. Then I had trouble holding the pen. When I was finally ready to see an endocrinologist, she wasn’t ready to see me for ten days. Those days were spent sometimes crying, often huddled, and always useless. I was too weak to pick up my baby. I’d become a lousy father, and half a husband at best.
I should have seen a doctor sooner, but couldn’t. At first I was afraid I had the same thing that killed my father so young, and I couldn’t face that. Couldn’t even admit it. By the time I’d figured out I probably had some kind of hyperthyroid disease (thanks WebMD!), we were in the middle of changing our family health insurance. In the meantime, I dropped down to 116 lbs. I’m 5’10”, people. At that height, doctors will tell you that 116 lbs is “not good.
And:
Dr. Susan Henley told me I “probably” have Grave’s disease, maybe not, and that, whatever, the treatment isn’t difficult. She also told me that there’s no ever getting cured, and that blood tests and medications would last my lifetime. The good news is, the weight will come back all by itself. The bad news is, my strength is gone — I’ll have to work to get it back. Anyway, the doc put me on three drugs, not one of which was any fun at all, not even when combined with medicinal Scotch prescribed by Dr. Steve.
And:
However, just because I’ll be popping thyroid pills every day for the rest of my life doesn’t mean I won’t recover. I’ve made what feels like remarkable progress in just two weeks, so I’ll blog when as I’m able, as my health and strength return. I can’t make any promises, but now I can say at least that I have some sanity.
And when will you get the real-deal VodkaPundit again? The day I can throw my son in the air and not worry about catching him — that’s the day I’ll return.
His P.S.:
Henley told me that my thyroid was so hyper, that surgery wasn’t an option. You know that before surgery, they clean the to-be-cut skin with iodine. Well. If that pure iodine got inside and touched my thyroid, it could kill me right there on the table. “OK, let’s not do that,” I agreed.
Two options left, and I started to weep. I didn’t sob, I didn’t wail; I wept. I could still speak, so I told her, “Whatever works fastest, just do it. If I have another week like last week, I just, I just can’t.” And literally, I couldn’t have, I think.
Some months ago Stephen mentioned that he likes the Marx Brothers, so I sent him every video and book I had on them (which is a lot: I collect books and DVDs on great comedians). And my advice to him would be:
Focus on the treatment, and on your family and ignore the inevitable people who parade through our lives being negative. I’ve known and know many people who’ve had serious illnesses and lived many many years with them (my foster son’s wife and my father are just two). One of the biggest germs they avoid are people who play mind-games.
Do what lifts YOU up. If you feel like writing, do it. Anyone who goes into any profession or energetically pursues a hobby runs into the naysayers and the prophets of doom and gloom. Forget about them. There are plenty of positive people — and positive data — that’ll give balanced perspective, versus weighing you down.
Watch the Marx Brothers; watch and read things that make you laugh. Like the posts I write seriously on this weblog.
Stephen Green is a quality writer but most of all a quality person. And we do believe that good people have special guardian angels.
So we know that we’ll be linking to Stephen Green way into the future — linking to posts of his during a President Dennis Kucinich administration.
See, Stephen?
I gave you a good laugh already.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.