Dear Friends, Family, Neighbors, and Those of You I Don’t Yet Know —
I am pleased to begin this issue of Odd Company with the happy news that — after a year of waiting, and just when we had nearly given up — my husband has received a donated lung, and is currently recovering from transplant surgery!
Last Wednesday night, we had just finished dinner and were sitting down to watch some TV before bed when John’s phone rang. On the other end of the line was a doctor from Stanford’s lung transplant team, who said, “We have a lung for you. Would you like it?” Heckfire! Did he have to ask?? An hour later, we were at the hospital in the preliminary stages of preparation. The lung, we were given to understand, was still in transit, by air, from an undisclosed location. By 3:00 a.m., John was in surgery.
We have many questions about the lung, of course. Few answers, if any, are forthcoming. Decisions about how much an organ recipient knows about the donor are up to the donor’s family. Some choose to remain unknown, and this seems to be the case here. Still, one can’t help thinking of the donor and wondering about the person, and about the circumstances that led to that person’s parting from one of their lungs. A human being can live with just one lung, so it’s possible — though unlikely — the donor is still alive. It’s also a very strange thing to contemplate that even if that person has died, some part of them is still very much alive. And perhaps we are not the only beneficiaries of this person’s enormous generosity.
My head is awhirl with these thoughts, and many more. I should also add that I am so tired from events of the past few days that I can barely string words into sentences. I have no clue whether I’m making any sense or not. Just flying blind here.
I was planning to write this issue of Odd Company on the subject of awe. I’ve recently finished reading Dacher Keltner’s aptly titled book, Awe. It’s almost as it I was preparing myself for this moment of complete astonishment and wonder. What better illustration is there of the interconnectedness of all things than this amazing situation in which a part of one person has literally become part of another?
Both Keltner and Brené Brown (in Atlas of the Heart) note that we feel awe when we are faced with something so vast or complex that we can’t entirely comprehend it. Awe and wonder always involve mystery. I almost always feel immersed in mystery and wonder about all kinds of things. I most certainly do now! That said, I think I’d better wait till next time to do a full issue about awe. Maybe I’ll be a little more coherent then. I trust you, dear reader, to understand.
Till next time, here’s a parting photo I took with my phone while walking in our neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Cherry blossoms! Spring is coming, in all sorts of ways. More soon!
Many thanks, everyone! We sure appreciate all the good wishes.
So happy for you Nancy and your husband! May he heal well.❤️
Loretta