Finally feels like a real weekend – my days were starting to blur into one. Moving house tomorrow, so I’m missing the skateboarding World Cup that was highlighted in blue in my diary (Ballpoint pen, remember. Coloured ink pen, important. Highlighter, WOOTS).
No fun. Packing is the worst.
So what do I do instead? Scour the news for interesting things to read up on: Kate Middleton’s topless pics revealed, nope. Starbucks racism, a post for later. A bike helmet sticker that calls for help if it detects a fall, nope. Japan and China’s fight over a few deserted islands, nope. The new iPhone 5, you do not need yet another review. A toddler fined for peeing in public, nope. Artwork made out of staples, maybe. More PSY Gangnam style raving, nope. Playing interactive bingo with real cows, nope.
Then I spotted it…something that definitely deserves a write up, yet a topic that we often veer around and choose not to write about, to talk about, to think about: Death and Cancer. We’ve come to the age where I think it’s safe to say that someone we know (and perhaps loved) have been hit by one or the other, or both.
Taylor Swift. I’ve never really been one of Taylor Swift’s screaming fans. Never asking Romeo to take me somewhere we can be alone, wearing T-shirts while she wears short skirts, or finding a reason for the teardrops on my guitar.
Ronan. Otherwise known as ‘Rockstar Ronan’. The little boy with the piercing blue eyes who lost his battle with cancer, just three days before his 4th birthday. His mother (Maya) started a blog to document his journey, shortly after he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. After he passed away, the blog was filled with letters to her son.
Let me assure you that the last three paragraphs do somewhat link together. Wait for it, wait for it, I will eventually get there. So here it goes…
Taylor Swift read the blog. She started to follow the blog. She was touched by the story behind it. She left a voicemail on Maya’s answering machine, asking for her to call back. Maya called her back. Taylor told her that she had written a song for her son. She named it Ronan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ITrd7fM6aY
Death and cancer are hard topics in itself; then you throw children into the equation and it raises it up to a whole different level. The statistics are quite shocking – just in Australia alone, more than 600 children are diagnosed with cancer and on average, 3 children die from cancer per week. That’s a really sad fact to digest. To think that just yesterday, I was complaining that “the scrabble game is nearly ending and I haven’t yet had a chance to use my Q!”.
Anyway, back to the song. It was performed on the ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’ show, which is on every major network and is seen in over 100 countries. Ronan hit #1 on the iTunes sales chart the following Sunday, with all proceeds going to cancer-related charities.
An awesome use of her celebrity status in my books. Points for Taylor Swift!
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