I "read" a book on tape last week called "Blindsided" by William Cohen. It's about the life, struggles, triumphs, heart, and mindset of a person with multiple sclerosis.

He calls it a "reluctant" biography. But it's important.

The book is important to me, because my mother-in-law has MS. It's not a fun disease. I chose the book because I don't always understand what she, her husband, and my darling wife are going through. I feel sorry for them (Cohen says not to feel sorry for him), but I'm proud of the way my family deals with an amazing difficulty in life. We are a happy family made up of members who love each other very much. Life is not perfect, we're not perfect, but we're perfect for each other.

MS keeps people from driving. Some people with MS have difficulty writing. Many are bedridden. Others live like I do, appearing to be free from injury but also, unlike me, knowing that they are slowly more and more affected by their ailment.

There's another part of the book that made MS more real to me: Cohen is a journalist, too. He was on the fast track to TV journalism immortality when he was diagnosed. Diseases can wreck everything that we have, they impede on all areas of our lives, they change (and sometimes ruin) family dynamics.

And why?

What it must be like to have a debillitating disease like MS!