Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – Tom Brokaw

Tom Brokaw

Hello, I’m Sam Jones. Normally I come to you in this time slot, ranting about one short coming or another, but not this time. Instead I want to pass along a suggestion written by someone we all admire. Tom Brokaw, the ground breaking reporter and for twenty-two years, the Nightly News anchor for NBC has a new book out that so impressed me, I want to recommend that you read it.

This man has covered so many stories in his lifetime, the deaths of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and interviews with such notables as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. He covered the attack on America on September 11th., 2001 in New York and was there when the Berlin Wall fell. He has interview men and women, great and not so great.

The name of his latest book is “Tom Brokaw, A Lucky Life Interrupted”. In the middle of 2013, Brokaw was hit with horrible news. He had a treatable but incurable form of blood cancer. They even told him with proper treatment, he might live another eight years. He faced it the way a real reporter would, he started a journal, a memoir in hopes others facing the same situation, would know with each passing day, there is a reason to be optimistic. Few have the sort of courage that is a big part of this man. I have to tell you, I wasn’t prepared for what I would learn from this small but very well written book. He takes us inside his work life, his family and most of what he is enduring. You’ll meet friends and of course Doctors. You will learn what he is still learning along the way. And sprinkled throughout, are tidbits of information that we can all use. I mean that. Normally, I don’t try to sell anyone a book but for this one,...

I’m making an exception.

Everybody at some time or another travels a bumpy road. All have to deal with whatever problem is thrown their way. For a great many, the ramifications of major medical problems are as hard to overcome as the medical issues. Tom Brokaw’s book, “A Lucky Life Interrupted” won’t solve all of those problems. But it does, I believe, help all of us understand what a great many Americans are facing every day. In so doing, it also helps explain what major problems have evolved out of modern health care and gently suggests a few possible solutions. What you will take away is good food for thought.

“A Lucky Life Interrupted” by Tom Brokaw. It is very much worth your time.

And that’s my perspective.