"A word in earnest is as good as a speech"
~Charles Dickens: Bleak House

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

May 10th is World Lupus Day

I have again been on hiatus. I had promised myself that I would be more focused and habitual with my blog. I mean there is so much to write about:



The ridiculous need for a debate on gay marriage
And last but certainly not least ..... the New Jersey Tanningbooth Mom



And this is what I believe is part of my overall problem these days .... there is just so much to comment on and write about .... where is one to begin?




So, why have I come out of my slumber .... World Lupus Day!
                       




In 2011 Julian Lennon became the Global Ambassador for the Lupus Foundation of America. He wrote a new song for Lucy (you remember her, the girl with kaleidoscope eyes). Lucy Vodden, Julian Lennon's friend, for whom he drew a picture and the Beatles made history, died of complications from lupus. Julian Lennon decided he would make sure the world remembered that Lucy and he released a single a few years ago that raised money for research. If you have not heard the single, I highly recommend you do: Lucy.




While a lot of people have questioned her diagnosis, Lady Gaga has also done a great deal to bring lupus to the everyday vocabulary of people. Her parents opened a restaurant in New York to honor Lady Gaga's aunt who died of lupus.



And more recently, Nick Cannon started a video blog about his experience with lupus. It is vitally important for him to talk about his experience with lupus nephritis since the disease is more prominent in people of color, and it is more serious in men.




There are countless celebrities who have been diagnosed with lupus, or who have supported education and research. But today I am asking that people who read this blog become celebrities in their own right.









I have spent many blogs talking about what life with lupus is like. I have talked about the symptoms, the frustration, the insight, the fears and the exhaustion. But today I would like to talk about the hope. Hope for a cure, for better medications, for more comfortable treatments, for more people to get it. Like with cancer and AIDS and heart disease, if people start talking, if people start caring, if people start educating themselves, maybe, just maybe life for those with lupus will get a little bit brighter!












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