Prayers and thoughts for Barry Rubin, please

I have long been singularly fortunate in that Barry Rubin periodically corresponds with me.  He is a light in the blogosphere:  informed, brilliant, objective, open-minded, decent, and kind.  Read any one of his posts about the Middle East, and you will learn more than you will learn in a year of reading the New York Times.  I always feel honored when I hear from him.

What I didn’t know is that Barry has been fighting cancer — at least, I assume it’s cancer, because he mentions chemotherapy in a recent post updating readers about the fact that he will be incommunicado for a while as his physicians work to drain fluid build-up from his longs:

i’m about to undergo an operation to attempt to drain the fluid from my lungs by inserting a tube. this will take 3-5 days and i will be in hospital. it is possible i will not be able to communicate during this time. they will then try to seal the lungs which if it succeeds will help me. we will then begin chemo and other therapies. the operation is said not be dangerous. please expect no correspondence or articles from me during this period. it is hoped that by next week i will be pretty normal and undergoing care. i have wonderful doctors. i hope and believe we will be together again in future. with all my gratitude for your being good readers and interested in my thoughts. i hope i have been helpful to you. please keep up the fight for what’s good and decent and right even when it costs us in personal and professional terms.

Please keep this lovely man in your thoughts and prayers.