maryannalbright

A passion for world affairs and human rights from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli. Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[maryannalbright @MaryAnnAlbright]

The Gilded Shore https://t.co/KbdR8A1L2x via @airmailweekly

[maryannalbright @MaryAnnAlbright]

Viewers SLAM Kelly and Mark as they air THIRD pre-recorded episode https://t.co/QVLogBuCgR via @Femail

[maryannalbright @MaryAnnAlbright]

Join me and over one million others in supporting a different model for open, independent journalism. Together we can help safeguard the Guardian’s future – so more people, across the world, can keep accessing factual information for free https://t.co/hSWOqOZlja

[maryannalbright @MaryAnnAlbright]

The Chasing M's Foundation Community Toy Drive https://t.co/xZAm6JNMdB

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

God, they’re so boring! #HarryandMeghanNetflix

[Richard Eden @richardaeden]

I'm appalled by the trailer for #PrinceHarry and #Meghan's #Netflix reality show - and so are Prince William and Catherine's inner circle. #royal Watch this new video via @mailplus
https://t.co/5607VUt6x6

[Jui Chakravorty @JuiChakravorty]

#elizabethholmes

[Stephan Dörner (in English) @doener_tech]

Elizabeth Holmes Is Sentenced to More Than 11 Years for Fraud https://t.co/hjoeLXOwZo

[scott budman @scottbudman]

Alex Shultz is still addressing Elizabeth Holmes directly.

The court is silent.

Says, "there's a lot of talk about Sunny and Elizabeth. From my family's perspective, Elizabeth is their Sunny Balwani. She took advantage of my family."

[scott budman @scottbudman]

#Breaking:

Here we go.
Elizabeth Holmes steps up to speak.

[Headless Gal @HeadlessGal]

#ElizabethHolmes

[scott budman @scottbudman]

#Update: Prosecutor wraps with: "When the court gives its sentence, it does the work of repairing the trust between innovators and customers. That trust was damaged by Elizabeth Holmes."
#Theranos

[scott budman @scottbudman]

#Update: We're talking sentencing now.
The judge says the "guideline calculation" is 135-168 months.

That's 11-14 years.

Lawyers now arguing.

[scott budman @scottbudman]

#Update: Judge says reasonable total loss to investors:
$121 millon dollars.

The judge says he will set a date to determine what Elizabeth Holmes owes .. but that will be a later date.

[Pat Harrod @PatHarrodRants]

Elizabeth Holmes is being sentenced right now

[scott budman @scottbudman]

To further set the stage here, the courtroom is packed to the gills.
Elizabeth Holmes has been emotionless so far, looking straight ahead.
Her family is seated behind her, along with several friends.
Both sides are still trying to sway the judge.
#Theranos

[scott budman @scottbudman]

#Update: The judge says probation officers recommend Elizabeth Holmes spend 9 years in federal prison.
(One of the things the judge takes into account).

[maryannalbright @MaryAnnAlbright]

Elizabeth Holmes Sentencing Live: Former Theranos CEO Arrives in Court https://t.co/33TpSlWcEr via @wsj

[Richard Eden @richardaeden]

This is astonishing. #royal #TheQueen