June 30, 2012 — Speaking with a close friend on the phone on Thursday evening, I described my dad’s battle with lymphoma in terms of a baseball game where our team had a six-run lead in the middle innings. Pretty comfortable. But the thing that still scares me is that the lead could slip to two runs by the late innings, and that would make for some harrowing moments. But then I remembered how the previous year, when a PET scan showed no visible signs of cancer halfway through his first round in this battle, I described it like we had a 42-0 lead at halftime of a football game. Well, he won that game, but the cancer came back. I suppose even for cancer, there’s always the old adage “just wait ’til next year.”

I apologized to my friend for using so many sports metaphors. He replied, well it’s in your wheelhouse.