SEATTLE — The saying goes, a picture's worth a thousand words.
For Brian Linn, that could not be more true, because he can barely speak.
But his pictures, they sing.
Cancer is winning the battle in his body.
The gliding eagles, stunning sunsets, and tilting tulips capture his idea of peace. And peace is at a premium when you're thrown into war.
It hit his nervous system and took his facial muscles, and his voice, and soon, his life.
His wife, Crystal, says it's certainly not the golden years they planned. "But that's OK. He's a good man, and we've had some good years together," she says, more to convince herself than anyone else.
They're not talking about years anymore. Doctors say it's just weeks, maybe months.
So, Stephen Lamson is trying to make the days really count.
He's taking Linn and his wife back to where Linn's idea of peace needs no words.
Lamson started a group called Gratitude Sailing, which provides a day on the water for people facing physical or psychological crises.
Lamson promised God he'd help others if he won his own fight: a years-long battle with shingles, meningitis and vertigo. It was a time when he felt "like Job." But God brought him back.
Lamson doesn't know why he's spared and Linn's not.
"We're human, we want to help, whatever we can do," Lamson said. "And sometimes it's just a shoulder. In this case, just an experience, but it means something."
%
%It means Linn will again feel the wind in his face, see the birds in the sky, and forget what the future holds.
Time will almost stand still.
What will it mean to Linn?
He scratches out his answer slowly on a piece of paper. It says only, "It releases me." Releases him from the body that's losing its battle.
It's his preview of paradise. It's quiet. It's calm. It's not cancer.
He believes it's from God.
A picture of the peace that awaits.