Uncomfortable questions about Alex Trebek

The Jeopardy! host, Alex Trebek, posted a video recently in which he described his grim medical condition—late stage pancreatic cancer. Trebek talked about it with courage, honesty, and even humor. His attitude is an admirable one.
He also asked for prayers on his behalf. 
Questions about that:

• If he lives, is that proof that prayers work?
• If he dies, is that proof that prayers don't work?
• If he lives and it means that the Christian god responded to the prayers, why would this be so? Would it be because of the volume of prayers? If true, why would that matter? 

Trebek seems to be a good person. He has participated in USO tours, donated land to conservancy organization, and donated millions to education. As a percentage of his net worth (a reported $50 million), however, his totals are not exceptional. He does his job well. There are many people, however, who are as upstanding and do their jobs well but few will ever know who they are. Their jobs are not jobs that ever touch the lives of others in any significant way, no matter how well they do them. Trebek has never cured a disease or ended suffering for anyone, to my knowledge, though he may have been a fine son/brother/father or spouse.

This will be the year

Yesterday at 8:06 a.m. the Complete and Total Loser completed his 56th year of living outside his mother's body.
Since he was in his mid 40s, the Loser has joked about how at a specific age, when he imagined getting money, work, women and himself sorted out he'd find himself feeling ill, see his doctor, and learn that he has pancreatic cancer and that there's no hope for any cure, as is usually the case with that kind of cancer and therefore the reason he choose it for the joke. The age he used was always 56 -- the age he turned yesterday. It just sounded right.
He spent the night in bed in the nice suburban house his late parents owned and he lives in now. He has hundreds of thousands of dollars to his name, thanks to those parents. His job sucks but he's at management level now and is secure, though he wouldn't mind if the job evaporated. Finally, he spent that night in bed with a woman he's been seeing for months now, the longest he's ever been with a woman, and he looks forward to her next visit.
The cancer is due any day now ...

This elderly woman will probably outlive the Complete and Total Loser.

Things in Common

Steve Jobs's death today saddens the Complete and Total Loser even though he and Jobs, a successful man with a family, have little in common except that both used Apple computers, are in their 50s and are bald men. Really, that's about it.

The Loser learned recently that he has a one in three chance of getting pancreatic cancer. Not bad odds. So there's a chance he and Jobs will eventually have another commonality.