Bitch Bitch Bitch

Anyone who has asked me how much I like Arizona has received a torrent of negative and sometimes downright vulgar responses. I hate the desert. I hate the heat. I hate the eternal blazing sun. At least Michigan has rain, seasons and the occasional half ass tornado. Weather has always been part of the most trivial of conversations and as a result is more likely to be bitched about.
What I never got around to considering, however, is when it comes to the Sonoran desert there are people out there who have had to endure worse conditions. One of these people is very close to me and is suffering a rare form of cancer facilitated by exposure to the sun. This individual is none less than my hero, my grandpa.
From June 1940 to May 1943 my granddad was busy smacking the piss out of the Italians and Germans along with the rest of the British 8th army. In the Sahara desert. During this time he managed to be present at most of the major battles and was detached in 1941 to Iraq to put down a rebellion and then Iran. In his words 'The Iranian government made all sorts of threats to join the axis, so we went there to convince them otherwise'
I could go on about his military exploits but that isn't the point here. When I asked him about the war when I was in high school, he looked at me and said 'there are other subjects out there other than war'. So after the nightmare of world war two he led a quiet modest life and retired to northern Michigan to live out his years. What i did not know is that he has struggled with skin cancer as a result of traipsing around the most inhospitable desert on the planet.
His doctors have since discovered his cancer is a rare one called Merkel. It starts with the skin but then attacks all the other organs. I often think of him, quietly sitting in his house-his wife has since passed away, a remarkable woman herself- enduring his illness with dignity and waiting for the end to come.
So here I have been sitting in air conditioning complaining about the desert like it's killing me. And yet the desert did catch up to him. And I have never heard him complain.
I'm going to start forgiving and forgetting the little inconvenient minutiae that seem to plague everyday life. There are worse examples of inconvenience everywhere but people often don't take the time from their own selfish pity to realize that there are always people who are worse off than you. So try not to bitch too much.