PHARM.D CHRONICLES
I had just closed my Pharmaceutical Chemistry workbook, the relief from finishing my practical report should've come over me but it didn't, instead, bitter realization dawned on me for the first time, bitter realization that my life for the next six years
Remembering the late, great Dolly, who brought joy, comfort and inspiration to so many - including the millions of children given free books through her Imagination Library. We will always ❤️ you.
Dolly Parton addressed health concerns about her on May 4, 2026
She incredibly compared herself to an old antique car that needed a new engine, transmission, new pistons and spark plugs.
“They didn’t say anything about my mental health” she joked.
She clearly had a ton of plans and active projects for this year, including a Nashville museum and hotel, writing, recording, getting on stage in 5 inch heels.
RIP Dolly. Her greatness makes it feel like 80 is way too soon. 🧡
So many think pieces on this video
She addressed him by name, he corrected and said he prefers Mister. She called him Mister, he said thank you and didn't make a bigger deal out of it
Why are you people writing LinkedIn articles on the video, acting as if she missed an opportunity of a lifetime or something?
😭😭 Ejor nau
Sometimes what you need isn’t money, just got to exchange value with someone through @bartiegenie and it all worked out smoothly.
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Didn’t think trading skills could be this easy till I tried it 🤝
Met someone who needed what I offer, and I got value back through @bartiegenie with no stress.
And if your device ever needs fixing, @techrehabstores is definitely who to call 📱🔧
Needed something done and instead of paying cash, we traded value for value 🤝
Used @bartiegenie to make it happen and the process was smooth.
Crazy how you can get real things done just by exchanging what you’re good at
For quality gadgets too, @techrehabstores is the plug 📱
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