I am a NY Mets Fan. To say that statement is an absolute and complete understatement. Anyone who knows me, knows that my blood has three colors running through it. Green for the NY Jets, and Blue & Orange for my beloved Mets. In 1973, my sister, brother, and I slept outside Shea Stadium to get tickets and were at the game when we beat the Cincinnati Reds (sorry Jeff Hitchcock). I ran on the field, I still have ‘Warning Track’ dirt in a small vile that I have kept all these years.
Yes, through all of the heart-ache and trials and tribulations, I have stood by and watched through ups and downs, getting close, missing, and a few times having a big year when we won it all. This year, we had no chance to win. In fact, the first team we beat to advance, was the Los Angeles Dodgers. In April of this year the odds-makers had them as the second best odds in all of baseball to reach the world series at 8-1. The Chicago Cubs, who beat the Mets 7 out of 7 games during the season were up next and had odds of 16-1 by the odds makers. The NY Mets; they were at 30-1 to get to the World Series.
Guess who is going?
But my columns are not about baseball, they are about diabetes. Sports are fun. Serious. Exhilarating. Frustrating. And just magic when everything seems to be moving forward. But they are, after all; a game. Much on the line for a lot of people………business for sure; but still a game.
Our world of diabetes is by no means a game. Our diabetes life has a World Series also. It’s a cure. That is the win. That is the only acceptable pennant to fly over my heart’s field of dreams.
When things go great with my sports’ teams, it’s a really good and fun time. I have stuck by them through the best and worst of times. Does my belief in a cure deserve any less of THAT SAME dedication?
I get it. It’s not here fast enough.
I get it. There are things being done that may look promising but are not here yet.
I get it. We’ve been hearing about it for some time.
I get it.
But deep inside me, as I celebrated our triumph in getting to the World Series last night, I knew that my feelings in the Mets were worth waiting for, it was worth the excitement.
You do not have to believe in my Mets. You believe in what you choose to; or not.
You do not have to believe in a cure for diabetes. Perhaps the waiting is, and has been, too long. Perhaps the promises were broken too often. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
But I stand behind the belief that a cure will come, the same dream I had since the first day I saw my daughter in the ICU at Stony Brook Hospital on September 26th, 1992. And that same belief occurred when my son was diagnosed on March 20th, 2009. You do not have to feel as I do, that’s your right. In the world of the NY Yankees, and the New England Patriots; I’m used to people not seeing things as I do.
When you wait for something for a long time, it surely becomes so sweet when you taste that victory and it finally arrives. I do feel that the World Series of Diabetes will one day be achieved. A cure. And any TRUE Mets Fan knows two distinct things.
AND
I believe, my kids deserve no less……do YOU?
I am a diabetes dad.
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