Maybe I shouldn’t be so dramatic.

When I taught my girls how to ski, my oldest mostly terrified and my youngest mostly fearless, I used to say ‘the most important part of form is a smile’.

This I believed. A smile could get a person out of just about everything, a little life hack that deflected meteors and incoming shrapnel. That warmed cool waters. That parted the grey right down the middle. That made landings in icy hard snow just a little bit softer.

That’s what I’m working on now, this better part of form. I’ve done the math, the long division especially, and what the news tells me is the prognosis looks good. Yeah, I’ll be on my back a couple weeks. Yeah, it looks like, for now anyway, that the cancer hasn’t spread beyond the prostate (which shouldn’t really be a concern but still somehow is). When I think of these things, and add a teaspoon of perspective (there’s that word again) given all the other travails in the world, well yes, I smile. Briefly, perhaps, but a smile nonetheless.

It does indeed help. I’ll do more of it.

Listen to this podcast if have any prostate questions or concerns, or email, text, or call me.