This is a celebration of smiley7, who has long been a friend of mine. We're blog brothers. He's a seriously good guy, as many of you know. Some scoff at the closeness such communion can bring, but not I.

I’m with Pierre.

“There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I dedicate this to my brother, smiley7, and the effort to raise funds to help him with the difficult circumstances that he is now facing.

Some background from smiley:

Everything was going along fine, I live simply and my needs were covered; but in September, my Mom came out of hospital with Dementia and as an only child, I had to reorder my life, drop everything including my summer work and go to her home, three hours away, to care for her 24/7.

As she is of modest means, my savings account was depleted and my credit cards loaded up. Thankfully, we nursed her back to a more stable condition and with the help of extended family, my son and local friends, she's doing extremely well given her circumstances.

Then the next ball fell when my winter work in the ski industry was delayed; losing two months of normal full-time work, including our very lucrative Christmas season which equates to around 35 percent of our normal winter income.

And now smiley is facing cancer. More from him:

There is no good time for a cancer diagnosis and were it not for Obamacare and the annual physical, I would not have known.

Since the confirming pathology before Christmas, I've exhausted myself in researching the best treatment alternatives. In the end I've taken the advise of my Primary Care Physician--a good one, he is-- two urologists and my oncologist. They all separately concluded and recommended Proton Beam Therapy ruling out surgery and a combination of seed implants and radiation. I am satisfied with my doctors advice that this is the best treatment available for curing the cancer with the least harmful following consequences.

According to the The National Association for Proton Therapy, there are 20 proton centers now in operation and 16 new centers in development in the U.S. The nearest one to me in rural Appalachia is located in Knoxville, TN — around 180 miles away. One of my closet friends and I were very impressed with the facility and the good responses we received from the patients we met during my initial consult and MRI.
The facility opened in 2014 and has plans to build patient housing as many cancers do; consequently, I have to find accommodations in Knoxville for nine weeks. After the surgical marking procedure which is scheduled for March 28 and 29th, I will begin daily radiation treatments for two months the following week (Mon-Fri) for 39 treatments.

God forbid you should ever have to walk a mile in his shoes

'cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues

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For more background on the situation with smiley7, I refer you to JekylInHyde's excellent Fear of the Unknown - And What the Future Holds for One of Our Community Members

More stuff at shiz's also excellent diary.

In our heartless country, if you're not rich, don't get sick – and if you do, die quickly. ‘Compassionate’ care is horribly expensive if you have the misfortune to be a sick American. Look at what these other countries have:

But we just abandon our sick to the predators and profiteers.

The harsh reality of for-profit medicine and the cruel vicissitudes of life itself leave us as the best hope to provide aid and comfort to our friend and brother, smiley7. He needs our help. I appeal to all that is best in you to dig deep (if, and only if, you can afford it) and let's help our friend find his way forward. His next few months on earth are going to be very difficult without our help. There is no better karma than to help a friend in need – unless it's helping a stranger in need. Yeah, that's even better.

Our love for each other is what makes life worth living.

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Take it from The Boss:

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Thanks to everyone who has chipped in so far. We’ve raised $1,720 of a goal of $7,000, so we have a good way to go. That’s a lot of opportunity for good people to step up.

A lot of us are on hard times, but that's not true of all of us. For those of you who can afford it, this is an opportunity to do a good thing. Even small donations can have profound results.

Pour out your love, brothers and sisters. It’s what we do.

Never forget, we're all in this together.

Here’s How You Can Help smiley7

Go to PayPal.com. Click Send Money to ‘Family and Friends’ which allows the recipient to get 100% of the donation. Enter smiley7’s email address gjournalist@gmail.com and amount you are sending. Remember, every little bit helps and adds up in a hurry.

If you happen to live in or near Knoxville, Tennessee or know someone who does and is able to temporarily rent a place to smiley7 while he undergoes cancer therapy, please Kosmail him directly. randallt over at dkos found smiley accomodations in Knoxville, so that's handled.

If you would like to send a paper check or money order (to protect your real identity) through the US Mail, please Kosmail smiley7 to get his mailing address.

You can also help by recommending this diary, offering encouraging comments, republishing to your Daily Kos groups, linking to your Facebook pages, and helping to spread the word through Twitter.

Thanks to everyone for all the love.

The sublime sadness of the human condition, lovingly evoked by the Tom Joad of rock ‘n roll:

"Streets Of Philadelphia"

I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt.
I was unrecognizable to myself.
I saw my reflection in a window, I didn't know my own face.
Oh brother are you gonna leave me wastin' away
On the Streets of Philadelphia.

I walked the avenue, 'til my legs felt like stone,
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone,
At night I could hear the blood in my veins,
Black and whispering as the rain,
On the Streets of Philadelphia.

Ain't no angel gonna greet me.
It's just you and I my friend.
My clothes don't fit me no more,
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip this skin.

The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake,
I can feel myself fading away,
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss,
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the Streets of Philadelphia

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Wear your love like heaven.

Our sublime purpose in this life is to help others. We are at our best when this is what we do. Please consider helping, if you possibly can.

Good luck, smiley! Thanks everybody!