Diabetes…..Even in a Quiet Cemetery Called Arlington.

These two stones rest in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.
Two of the worst disasters in our aviation-space-history.

I had to wait to get close to them because there was a school in front of me crowding around as the they were lectured to how important these days in history were and to take a moment to remember.

Those moments were part of my life, to these kids….not much more than a history lesson.

The idea of space travel has always intrigued me.  The launching of ships with millions of pounds of thrust catapulting men and women into space always amazed me.  John Kennedy once stated that if we saw the idea of a man on the moon we could do it within a decade. 

Kennedy stated at Rice University in Houston Texas; ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade……not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”  I remembered that quote as I turned around to leave.

The school had gone ahead, but a woman, I thought a teacher at first,  was behind me on one knee with a child right next to her.  I heard her say one thing.

“How much insulin do you have on board?”

In this moment, in this national cemetery, in this place of solitude and quiet; diabetes does not care.  I stayed within ear shot until I realized that this was her child and she was the mom; I surely would not be needed here.

How many class trips?  How many parents doing the same thing?

As I left to return to the conference I was in town to attend, I kept thinking of that speech of John Kennedy.  We chose…not because they are easy but because they are hard.  From earth to the moon—-one decade. 

And a mom still has to be on one knee to test her childs blood sugar.

Why hasn’t a choice been made to back the government-NIH-science again, as it needs to be backed, to do that which is hard….and not what is easy, and end this disease once and for all?

I am a diabetes dad.

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