The Heart of Three Men

A year ago at this time my then-dying friend Jon Marsh received a life-giving donor heart from Roger Knott, a man who had himself just received a donor heart. This older gentleman died from unrelated complications after carrying the donor heart only one month after receiving it from Mark Girard, Jr., a younger man who died in an assault. This one-heart-in-three-people arrangement has previously happened only ten other times in the history of heart transplantation. I visited with Jon a short few weeks before his transplant and an account of that visit may be viewed HERE. Below is a short piece on this amazing story and below that is a poem Jon published today about his experience around the time of these events one year ago.

It was just another day in the hospital.
More tears, more heartache....loss....defeat....depression.
I began the process of making my peace with God.
I tearfully cried for God to close my eyes.... so I could be with him.
The pain was certainly a factor....but my spirit was broken, beaten....down.
No longer could my dying heart hang on.
So I started to thank tearfully everything Jesus was to me....
that he stuck closer than a brother.... a dear friend and my Lord.
How God spoke to me in my darkest hour.
When the storms of heart failure were killing anything that was still left....
....MUSIC no longer gave me joy.
My smile shattered by waves of loss....defeated....broken....searching for peace.
Finding solace in the darkest place....the coldest day.
The longest day becoming a nightmare.... death was all around my bed.
Death was welcome so that I might live again....
....so I could stand before my God and hear the words....
...."Well done good and faithful servant."
I perceived I had fought the good fight and finished the race.
I prepared my wife....I informed her I really felt and believed that I DID NOT have much longer....
....and I need to start saying goodbyes.
I wept bitterly as I GOT OFF THE PHONE with my wife.
I thought of my son....his smile....his life....I was his daddy....
....my wife....but Lord she needs a husband!!!!!
God reminded me that he Is our daddy and we are his children.
The night progressed and on January 31, 2015....God was not finished with me.
Shortly after speaking with Laura....Dr. Pretorious came into my room....In street clothes no less....
He was coming to tell me I had another blood clot and I was not much longer for this world....
thank you Jesus I was wrong......PRETORIOUS spoke the words to me....
I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU....I HAVE A HEART FOR YOU JON....
....its a high risk heart....but it's a strong heart.
I called my wife and shared the news.
We stayed up all night with thankfulness and prayers we were together as a family.
The road has been a long one.... to always remember.
And when you are broken, lost and defeated....
God sends all the right people....sending his Angels, his prayer warriors.
And the example of JESUS.... who shed his blood and suffered for me....
....that I may one day have eternal life....and life more abundantly.

~ by Jon Alston Marsh

Picture of the Day - A~Town Buttermilk Sky

This is an unaltered/unenhanced image I captured early this evening at the intersection of Curbaril Avenue and El Camino Real in Atascadero, CA. It features a setting sun illuminating a buttermilk sky/mackerel sky as the next powerful El Niño enhanced storm approaches with a Pineapple Express component. The associated fetch of atmospheric moisture reaches out to the west beyond Hawaii and extends across the Pacific Ocean eastward through California and across North America into the Great Lakes region.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Tonight I'm Infected

Tonight I have tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, and tuberculosis. (‪#‎Tdap‬ ‪#‎tuberculosistest‬)

Ghosts From Tonight 316 Years Ago

Tonight at about 9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, a M9.0+ earthquake struck the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and Southwest British Columbia. It was generated by a full rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a large subduction zone roughly equivalent of the one which caused the Great Tohoku Earthquake in Japan in 2011. This event generated a Pacific-wide tsunami which caused damage in Japan where it was recorded by monks as an "orphan tsunami" as there was no quake in Japan to which it could be attributed. Given Native American oral traditions and tsunami deposits along the coasts of Oregon and Washington, it is clear that there were casualties among local peoples at that time. This earthquake generated lasting topographical changes where parts of the coast were sunk below sea level killing these sitka spruce trees whose roots previously had been in freshwater above the heavier seawater level and in some cases the forests were dropped into the sea as the ocean extended inland. Such a case happened with the Neskowin Ghost Forest along the Oregon Coast in Tillamook County. Before tonight I had not previously seen this haunting relic of not only the 1700 earthquake, but in the case of some trees, other such events over the course of the past two millennium or so. Over that period, successive great quakes have lowered the land in this region. However, the most recent event alone dropped this area by up to 30 feet in elevation.

R.I.P. Joe

This evening I discovered that somebody with whom I grew up died overnight last night. I have known him since sixth or seventh grade as well as his brother to a lesser extent and his even younger sister to even less an extent. However, we all used to hang  out with our moms together and go to places like Hazard Canyon over at Montaña de Oro State Beach near Los Osos, CA.

I watched him grow up at Atascadero Junior High School and initially at Atascadero High School as he was a grade below me. It seems to me he disappeared after awhile which as it turns out was due to his transferring to the Continuation High School in Atascadero.

We lost touch for about two decades after that but reconnected on Facebook and at a social function in Atascadero a few years ago. Through mutual friends in the know, I became aware in more recent years that he had been a minor drug dealer in Atascadero in his younger years. Apparently, he had long abused drugs and alcohol for much of his life. From his rough appearance and premature aging as well as how he spoke and his mind functioned it was clear to me this was quite true.

Last night he died in his sleep of cardiac failure as his heart finally gave out after all he put it through over the course of his 43 or so years. It was haunting and melancholly to look at his Facebook page tonight and see his last post was at 9:57 p.m. I "liked" it and posted the response, "Oh Joe, please go to a hospital right now and not to sleep...." I suppose it would not have mattered if he did.

Graphic of the Day - So Elemental A Table Too

When looking at/thinking about minerals it is important to think about not only the elements which comprise them (or that they are if they are elemental minerals) but also it is important to think about from whence and when those elements originated. Being the visual creature I am given I am a male of my species, I really like this modality of explaining the origins of various types of known elements. In the Nuclear Science class I am currently taking at Cal Poly we have delved into the origins of the various elemental groupings and I have learned things I never knew before which has been exciting. I enjoy having filled any important gaps in my knowledge of how things work and how they came to be. This is the second time that some formulation of the periodic table has appeared in this Graphic of the Day column on my blog with the previous one being HERE. Chart courtesy of NASA's Cmglee (all rights reserved).

How The Force Awakens

Yesterday, I found this rather compelling short film showing off but some of the special effects in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is accompanied by an extremely beautiful, compelling, and haunting score. Crank up the speakers and go full screen with the vid! Note: the haunting accompanying track is "I Love You" by Josko but it is a remix and I know not who remixed it.