Dispatches from Athens

OK, so apparently there is yet ANOTHER Cieslak relative out there blogging:

Michael--Gary's oldest son, and my nephew--is journaling his experiences while studying abroad.

Or is that studying a broad?

Check out his site:

http://roaminruminations.blogspot.com/

That's Mike in the foreground--I think the picture captures his personality perfectly!

Benefit Concert for VHL a Success!

In August of 1969, about a quarter of a million kids converged on Max Yasgur’s farm near the sleepy village of Woodstock in upstate New York to listen to 32 of the biggest names in rock music, and come together for an historic weekend of peace, love, and music…

Big deal.

Exactly 40 years later, my seventeen year-old nephew Calvin Cieslak threw a backyard party that totally rocked!

With the help of many friends and family members, Calvin arranged “VHL-stock,” “an evening of desert, wine, and music,” as a way to raise awareness of Von Hippel-Lindau disease, and garner donations for the VHL Family Alliance Cancer Research Fund.

When he was 12, Calvin was diagnosed with this rare genetic disease that leaves him vulnerable to tumors on his eyes, spinal cord, and adrenal glands. He’s already had three delicate surgeries to remove such growths—including one on his retina!

But by all measures, the event was a complete success. Initially, the family was hoping to raise about $5000 for the Cancer Research Fund. But the finally tally was over eleven grand!

Thanks to everyone who attended, and all who donated so generously…

After the show, rumors of a VHL-stock II were already in the air!

(Thanks to Joel Lifter for the photos...seems none of the Cieslaks remember to bring a camera!)

For more of the story, go here...or here...

The Gift

By Kim Cieslak

My wedding day was almost four years ago. It was, to put it lightly, an amazing party, time of my life, a day of highlights. But one that stands out to me, especially now in light of recent events, is the toast given to my husband and I by my big brother, Gary. I was surprised, and almost overwhelmed with emotion when this person--ten years my senior and someone whom I had looked up to my entire life with supreme respect and adoration--got up to speak. As usual, his words were eloquent, humorous and wise, and my new husband and I took his words about recognizing and appreciating the rainbows in everyday life that “crash” down in front of us to heart. We were not the only ones. Everyone who had the privilege to witness that toast that evening was extremely moved.

It was, I now know, a very special gift. As he is consumed by the same cancer that stole our mother over eighteen years ago, he is losing his ability to speak his usual beautiful words. But I have video. In a last minute decision, I decided to hire a videographer on advice from a friend. How fateful that decision was. I have been avoiding watching my wedding video because, I guess in my own way, I wanted to avoid what was happening to him by denying how he has changed. But after my visit to him last weekend, I am compelled to view it. So I sit down with my glass of wine and watch, through a haze of smiles and tears. The toast is as I remember – eloquent, humorous and wise. And that is how I will always remember him.

And so, I raise my glass to you, dear brother. May your “rainbow” of generosity, integrity, warmth, and humor follow your family for all of their days. I love you. Na zdrowie.

Gary

As many of you know, Gary's situation has gotten worse. Here's how the timeline breaks down.

Sometime in the Fall, Gary had his first seizure. Years before this fateful day he had had a bump on his head that we assumed was some old painful bonk or something along those lines. He had went to gotten it removed, and they discovered and abnormal growth in his brain. We chose not to act on it, but when we heard about the seizure, we knew what it was. It was cancer.
Things were okay for a long while and they even retained normality. That is until Groundhog's Day. Groundhog's Day happened to be Dad's favorite holiday, which made it ironic and tragic that this day marked his second seizure. After that day, things went downhill....
We started some radiation from early winter to late spring, but when he got his MRIs back, there was no good news to rejoice. The cancer had spread and more tumors had popped up despite the sacrifice that had gone with the radiation.
At this point Brian and Amy came to help Mom deal with the stress. It was Mother's Day. And Mom fell on the stairs and broke down, crying. Brian, Amy, Andy, and I all comforted her as she weeped there. Yet another ironic date...
A couple of weeks later the whole family rolled including Brian and Julie, Jeff and Jennifer, Kimmi and Peter, Amy and Kurt, David and Michelle, and Grandpa and Grandminnie. His whole family came to Boise. I think it was there way of saying goodbye.
And it was the Saturday after my very last day of school when things really went to the dogs. I woke up and walked into my parent's bathroom to brush my teeth (I use theirs when there are guests) to find Dad actively seizing on the bed. It turned out that he had continuous seizures for HOURS. Mom gave him as many meds and anti-convulsive she could almost to the point of overdosing him. When he finally fell asleep and he woke up, he was immobile and dysfunctional. He couldn't walk and could barely speak, and when he did, it was with incredible difficulty, and he couldn't get the words out. The first day of my summer...

Jessica and Micheal and Andy and I all went to a counselor today. They say if he makes six months it'll be a miracle. So it's time to stop hoping for recovery and the return to normality that I had always wanted and start hoping that Dad knows that we're doing fine before he goes. And I think that he already kind of has. He's seen Andy's improved grades and Micheal's 4.0 and even got to see me get a music achievement award at my concert. I'm glad that we were able to make him proud of us and how he raised us before he leaves us.

I can't bring myself to say anything more on the subject...

Predestination vs. Free Will

My regular monday-night small group sunk their teeth into an apparently controversial and interesting topic tonight. It was, as the title implies, about predestination.

Predestination is a concept that claims God has a predetermined plan and/or destination for your life. This definition is, of course, open for critique and different interpretation.

From my point of view, it is a seemingly futile topic to spend much time debating simply because it subjective and, quite honestly, unable to be understood by the human mind.

It is a wide spectrum.

On one side of the spectrum we have radical Calvinist (no relation to me, mind you - John Calvin) ideals: Everyone is predestined so therefore the Christians have no reason to witness and the non-believers have no reason to try and become saved.

On the other side we find the ideals of radical Arminian (not Armenian): There is no predestination, but instead free will. You have the ability to do whatever you want.

The reason why the topic is so controversial is really because there is so much room for interpretation. You may be leaning towards one side or the other or may believe in a blend of the two.

The second reason why it is hard to grasp is because we, as human beings, have limited capacity for understanding of anything that is outside time and space. Anything that does not have to deal with time is an unfathomable concept for us. So we can obviously not understand how a God that lives outside of time can interact with and affect that which lives inside time.

Thus, the controversy of the doctrine of Predestination.

Whadya think?

Dad's Last Day of Radiation

Today was Dad's last day of radiation. We've come a long way since Groundhog's Day. It's been more than two months. As many of you know, my Dad, Gary, has been taking radiation treatment for a while now. And today was his last day.

He's doing alright now. He's still not quite himself, and won't be for about a week. But then, if everything goes well, he will be himself again. He'll recover.

Well it's in fate's hands now. I'll keep him in my prayers.

Who's Left?

Amy's with us in spirit...

Guess that leaves Kimmy!

For Gary As Well

Well here it is. A pound of hair and $700 to St. Baldrick's Foundation. For Gary.

Darn you Brian, you beat me to it.

For Gary

Mitzi walks the walk as world's most supportive wife ever!

Then Brian joins in...

Who's next?

Billy gets in the chair...

Mohawk for a minute!

Father and son...

Then Jeff shows his support!

No fair! Dave had a head start!

Solidarity

This is for Gary...

Solidarity, bro!

Cieslakness

"To build something," eh?

Upon reading the two terrific blog posts regarding our family lineage and meaning, I thought, "Wow, I would love to post an entry further elaborating on our family and it's orgin. Besides, I did do that report on the Cieslak family in like 5th grade."

"I'll just be able to talk along the lines of what Joe and Bryan said..."

Umm - wrong!

I don't know what to tell you - I've got nothing.

What I do have, however, is an observation:

Brian insists that being a Cieslak means doing something with your life. Being in the midst of my junior year of high school, the college search is afoot. Disjointedly making my way through the tons of literature that universities send has been overwhelming enough. My parents and college counselor attempt coerce possible majors and careers out of me and, at this point, I have no idea where I want to go with my life.

"What do I want to do?" I half-seriously ask my friends - as if they would know what I need. I feel as though everything I do is burning more bridges and closing more doors.

I need to find direction. I need to find the wind.

I have an all too familiar feeling that once I find my direction, it will have been right in front of my nose the whole time. The wind was at my back all the while and I had no idea. I was too oblivious to know it was there.

I suppose all I can do is pray and hope that God would let me in on his itinerary for my life. One peek is all I need, God. Pretty please?

All I can say is I hope my Cieslakness, that is to build something, would set in fast, 'cause life is coming and I'm not quite ready yet..

To Build

Cieslak, I am told, is the Polish word for “carpenter.”

But if you were to watch some of us in action, you’d swear it was the term for “irony.” Gary and I are flat out dangerous with a hammer, and a nail gun would become a lethal weapon in our hands.

Yes, Jeff is modestly handy around the house I’m sure, and Calvin’s dad, D-Rave, has always been mechanically inclined, even doing good, basic auto repair.

But we just don’t live up to the name.

Here in my office sits a small wooden box with leather handle. It is a tool box, built by hand a long time ago by Grandpa William Cieslak. Inside are some musty old tools, including a carpenter’s plane. I’ve often turned this curious object over in my hands, imagining the many useful items he fashioned using this simple implement. Furniture, farm sheds, and even homes.

And I’ve always felt this deep sense of somehow being cut off—not just from the legacy of craftsmanship, but from a country, a language, and world I never knew.

Strange—I’ve always had this intense interest in family history, but there just isn’t very much. It’s a thin story: Grandpa sailed into Boston harbor when he was seventeen. Details about his father Michael are sketchy and few. William’s son, my dad, understood the Polish overhead in his house when he was a little boy, but never really spoke it. And now it’s almost gone.

But what if…

What if Cieslak was not simply the Polish word for carpenter, but rather synonymous with the phrase “to build something with one’s life”? Build a home, build a family, build something of value to others in this world.

In that light, my brothers and sisters have continued that legacy.

And now it’s up to their sons and daughters.

Go build something.

The Cieslaks

It's a polish name. In Polish it's pronounced like chesh-lak. But here it pronounced see-slak. Oh how many times have I have that name mispronounced? Too many times...

Alright. Now that we have the pronunciation down, what does it mean to be a Cieslak? And who's to say? Answer: A Cieslak himself.

Perhaps I can only speak for some of the men in the family in this. But Brian, Calvin, Gary, and I all seem to share some characteristics. All four of us seem to be brilliant (not just my words) in their own way. Brian is an incredible writer. Gary is a brilliant doctor. Calvin and I are both intelligent and great writers and well. On top of that, we all seem to posess some amount of musical talent. Calvin and Brian both are skilled guitarists, and Gary and I both are skilled pianoists (plus my saxophone). If we added in Uncle Dave, we'd have nearly a full band!

But I digress. There is one more truly important thing about being a Cieslak. Through everything that I've seen of my family, it suggests that every one of us are good, intelligent, fun people. I've been blessed with quite a family...

King James Prose

While all the other authors have made their first contributions to the new family blog, I was not able to think of anything worth posting. I had read the first few entries on this page and exchanged emails with Brian and Joe regarding the orientation of literary content we were planning on having here. So far, it seems all of us have come up with some pretty good...filler. Just filling up space.

While I contemplated the nature of my first post on The Cieslaks, a remark my dad had made earlier this week at dinner echoed through my vacant mind: "I wish you guys would cut it out with the King James prose - just say what you want to say!"

This, of course, is coming from the man that always has a new vocabulary word for the family at dinner time.

I must admit that, at times, it does seem a little nonessential. So I'll try and keep the King James prose and 25 cent words to a minimum - honest.

A Collaborative Effort

It's more difficult than I thought to sustain a multi-authored blog than I had supposed. Already I've gotten five emails from Brian and Calvin (more than I've ever had from them) and they both sound confused. What is this blog about? Is it under some sort of genre?

To be honest, I don't know. Maybe winging it isn't the best answer. So what do I do? Wing it of course!

So I've got to make up a vague genre and subject to make sure I don't seem like a fool. I just want this to be a fun blog with some good creative writing in it. And maybe a supplement to our other blogs. After all, it sounds like Brian's writing some sort of epic story (he gets the girl of course). It'll probably be under the "memoirs" genre. Kind of like our other writing.

So there!

Happy now?

Avuncular, Part 2

Why would anyone embark on any sort of collaborative endeavor—especially a blog—with their own uncle?

Uncles, after all, can be irascible and mercurial. Perhaps that is why they don’t fare very well in popular culture.

Quick: name a famous uncle.

Uncle Fester? Crazy, wide-eyed eccentric.

Uncle Sam? Always pointing his finger at you, harping about “duty,” and trying to get you to join the army.

And then there’s Uncle Scrooge.

Dicken’s most memorable character is perhaps one of the most notorious relatives in Western culture. Recall this exchange:

"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It
was the voice of Scrooge's nephew…

"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"

"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?"

"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.

"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"

Who would want to hang out with this guy?

Oh sure, Disney tried to soften his image years later with their Scrooge McDuck character. Bottom line: same old curmudgeon repackaged in tail feathers.

Still, if that’s what you desire as you walk through this world, to call on, from time to time, your dad’s weird brother—with his wisps of gray hair, old Led Zeppelin 8-tracks, and worn out Levi’s—I am humbled...

Meet the Bloggers

Welcome, one and all. On display today we have Brian Cieslak, Calvin Cieslak, and Joe Cieslak pitching in to make, hopefully, one hell of a blog! Tune in next time...