thoughts for thumbs

ebert will be having surgery on the 16th to remove a malignant tumor on his salivary gland. he'll be working through recovery.
my aunt passed away yesterday from pancreatic cancer at the age of 62. she lived for 30 months after diagnosis; most of those days, she was in a tremendous amount of pain, as the cancer ate away at her vertabrae, liver, stomach and, eventually, her heart and brain. she was unable to walk the last three months of her life, and spent the last few weeks on delauded and more or less in a comatose state.
ebert's cancer is "slow-growing" but "persistent," and there's no doubt he's had to endure a lot over the past few years, including a total of three major surgeries.
if you want to see a touching film about death, pain and grief, rent 2003's the barbarian invasions.
that's all i really want to write about that ...