Words of Wisedom from Uncle to Nephew

My cousin Christopher Bannon is my dad's eldest nephew. He and my dad shared a very special connection and Chris is the reason that my dad was known as "Uncle Tommy" by so many people starting at age 15.

Last fall, Chris had a tumor removed from his pituitary gland. Chris sent me the following:



I wanted to share some words of wisdom and encouragement from Uncle Tommy he sent to me just before I went in for my surgery to remove the brain tumor. His clarity was so overwhelming I could not delete the email. I thought it fitting to share it now:



Chris,

I have been thinking about you and your upcoming procedure. First I want to wish you the best luck possible. Having had some experiences of my own in my lifetime I have had the opportunity to develop or rather evolve a philosophy that suites me as an individual. Also having a gut full of tumors gives me a different appreciation of the fact that we all are here on more of rental basis as temporary residents rather than owners like we tend to think we are. Our real “home” is more likely where we came from before we are born and where we all return to when we are done living. All of the time between those two events is more like a visit. Sometimes it is going to suck for some of us but for most of us it is a pretty good time. My beliefs are that we are here to engage with other humans and learn to care and love the whole boatload, even the idiots and assholes. The challenge is to be able to do that with the endless number of obstacles that life gives us. I know you have already experienced some of those obstacles and there might be more that you would never choose for yourself and your family, but just like any visitor we don’t get to choose the weather or most of the other circumstances. That’s why there are words like luck and chance. If it helps just try to remember that this short visit here is the gift and whatever challenges we encounter there is the possibility that there is some sort of reason for the crappy ones.”

Good luck,



Uncle Tommy