My brother Rob recently was diagnosed with first stage prostate cancer.

Fortunately, he was diligent in having his PSA screening test and was able to discover the cancer quite early.

He elected for surgery to remove his prostate and found a surgeon who was able to do "nerve sparing" surgery which he is now recovering from.

I went to see my brother after his surgery and he was quite relieved to have come through his surgery alive and well.

There was no evidence of cancer once the prostate was removed.

Rob expressed that he felt the advances in medicine were miraculous.

I told him I felt the human body’s ability to recuperate was miraculous.

I was relieved and inspired by my brother’s condition.

One of the highlights of our visit was a trip to K Mart.

It was my brother’s first outing in the week since he was under "house arrest."

He could not drive so I drove him to the K Mart.

When we got there rob was overjoyed at being there.

As a result of his good spirits he received exceptional service throughout the store.

We were returning some kids t-shirts that were too small for the iron-on transfers of photos of a panda and my daughter that my brother had taken with his new digital camera.

The previous day we had spent many hours putting together a collage of pictures from my childhood that my brother scanned onto his computer and printed out for the collage.

We had spent those two days in meaningful activities that neither of us would have found the time to do had we been on our normal work schedules.

At any rate, we found time during the weekday hours to roam the isles of K Mart to exchange the T-shirts and find some other items (including some birthday presents for me).

I have shopped on occasion at K-Mart and never found it easy to elicit help in my shopping.

If I return an item the customer service people are not terribly pleasant; if I have a question the sales force is invisible.

My experience was in total contrast to my brother who received quality of service wherever he went; at the customer service desk they happily exchanged his T-shirts eventhough he had no receipt and the bag was opened; in children’s clothing the sales woman led him to the replacement T-shirts; in camping the sales man gladly obtained a price on an item.

When I relayed this story to my wife she said attitude is everything.

My friend, Anne Romance, relayed a story from her travels in Equador where rather than "altitude sickness" their interpreter spoke of "attitude sickness".

Although they were affected by the altitude on their tour, none involved were infected with attitude sickness.

After the brief time spent with my brother I was reminded that what is truly miraculous is the ability of the human spirit to rise above seemingly adverse conditions.