In the Trenches: Diabetes Dad

Did you ever wonder what diabetes would look like and sound like if it was personified? Would it be a raging monster with fire coming out of its nose? Would it be a person who looks sweet enough to invite in and then devours everything in sight? Would it be a kicking, screaming little kid that you just can’t quiet no matter how hard you try? What do you think diabetes would look like?

For some reason, I have always felt that diabetes had a voice like James Earl Jones. I don’t know that I envisioned what diabetes looked like; just that it sounded like the great actor with the booming voice. I’m not sure why that is, but when James Earl Jones speaks, one is surely inclined to listen–to every word. He demands that respect. When diabetes ‘has something to say,’ do we not do the same?

I’m sure James will not be happy with me that I gave his voice over to the personification of a disease-state. But imagine what your day would sound like if you woke up in the morning and you heard THAT voice inform you (now picture James talking to you), “I took over your child’s night, and I kept them up with my unyielding desire to keep blood sugars out of control.” Couldn’t you almost picture that voice? Maybe my thought is reinforced with the notion that James is also the voice that played such evil as Darth Vader (that makes sense also doesn’t it?Diabetes and the ‘dark side’?).

Here is the thing: James Earl Jones is one of my favorite actors. His speech about baseball in Field of Dreams is a classic and one of my favorite cinematic memories of all times. And what bothers me most about my envisioning diabetes having that voice, is no matter how great I may think it is, no matter how booming and intense it could be; if it were diabetes—I would still want it to shut up and go away.

Because even the greatness, and my fondness of the great James Earl Jones would not make me like diabetes for even one second. Maybe I’ll just go back to picturing diabetes with horns and a flame-throwing voice; an aggravating, screeching, and annoying character. Diabetes is not good enough for James Earl Jones–he deserves better and in reality, don’t we?

I am a DiabetesDad.