everybody is talking about cancer today

with the news about The Big Man from Cupertino
All I will say here about Steve Jobs is that he seems to have lived well (productively, certainly) with a death sentence of uncertain duration. There is grace in that, yet I would not have brought it up on this blog without a real estate angle. Not a loft angle, and no Manhattan connection other than the medium. But a lovely story, well written, with an angle that has something Jobish about it.

The title in the print edition of the featured article in today’s Home section of the New York Times is No Room To Waste (the on-line title is longer, for some reason). Maybe most of these features are as well written, or maybe I am sensitive to sentiment in the post-Job world, but I think Joyce Wadler did a wonderful job talking about a house and what it means for the couple who own it.

I am not going to ruin anything by telling you that the owners are consciously living what may be a temporarily cancer-free lives, a fact that is featured prominently in why they bought the house and how they love and use it. Even if you have no interest in ‘country houses’ or the marshes of Maine, I highly recommend the piece.

Again, I don’t think I will ruin anything by quoting the closing paragraphs, offering a view about living that many people are talking about today as one of Jobs’ gifts:

“The goal for us is to live as if the cancer is never going to come back,” she said. “If I have to deal with that later, I will do so. I have found a way to live, I hope, fully, happily, joyfully and presently, without being tortured by worry about the cancer returning.”

“But cancer is not the reason we bought this house,” she added. “We bought this house because we loved this island and we wanted to provide a way for us and our family and the other people we love to live together on this most gorgeous place on earth.”

Best of luck to them. R.I.P. Mr. Jobs. Thank you, Ms. Wadler.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011