I have asked Wlady to publish this statement in the letters column, and I have sent it to my mailing list, too.
I’ll be busy this week with a couple of minor surgeries – switching over from peritoneal to hemo dialysis. Your loving responses have humbled me with gratitude, and also made me realize what a complete horse’s ass I made of myself, popping off the way I did. “Writers write,” yes indeed, but more writers, myself included, ought to pay attention to Bill Wilson’s dictum, “Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen.”
I will reproduce a paragraph from a friend’s letter to me for now, and leave it at that.
“Your article broke my heart. First for its dire nature, secondly for your presumption that controlling pain is a character flaw. It isn’t. Neither is it the same as chronic alcoholism. I speak with a knowing clear heart. If God offers a physical measuring to lessen the pain you are going through and your doctor feels it will help in whatever lies ahead, then use it. This in no manner implies you are a mindless addict.”
I will pick up writing in two weeks, and I hope by that time I will write about something a lot more interesting than myself.
