A blast from the past

Now for something completely different.

If you expecting a reflective discourse on the nature of the revealed and the hidden dimensions of disease with today's spying techniques on the body - CT, PCR, PET, MRI, and so on - and how they can shatter the surface calm, you need to wait, it is coming

Today, I share some connection with my younger self and a very special friend from more than 40 years ago.

Would I recognize that naive swimmer and scholar with the world opening before him. Would we be friends? I hope so. I could learn so much from that younger man and his plans to try to change the system from within. His hungry eyes on the prize, the prize of love and joy and the thrill of pushing the limits and winning. I still hear his voice in my ears, but it not the lusty defiant shouts of the expanding universe, the coming of age in the late 60s and 70s, but more the same still quiet voice that spoke to Elijah. Remember, it whispers, remember that it is all about the people. It is all about connections. And now it seems reconnections.

I worry that too many loops are closing, too many snakes are swallowing their tails and their tales, that it portends a personal cataclysm, but my wife and my friend tell me it just the realities of Facebook and being 58 years old. I am again, being overdramatic.

Meanwhile, Tom Robbins is tattooing the secret of life on my thick forehead (Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Deut 11:18) so I won't forget it again:

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

A dear friend from the far away past has dug up these black and whites of me from my buffer days when I was a wide eyed 16 year old, when my worries were different and all was possible.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Walking against the Wind

The sand on the beach on Balboa Peninsula recalled snow drifts in Morin Heights, Quebec almost 40 years ago, and although the strong cold wind had a bite, its teeth were not the sharp canines that had cut through my flesh in a Laurentian blizzard.

Walking against the wind seems cleansing. Good to do, but tough.

Miriam, our sickly dog, seems brighter today. Her cancer can behave like that. Ups and down. Barry B. (see comment) suggested modified citrus pectin (MCP), and there are a few studies that look promising.  It may slow the growth of the cancer. So might the NSAI she is taking for pain. Not a cure.

I will pick the MCP up tomorrow. Thank you Barry for the tip.

Me? I too have my  ups and down. The imminent possible return to work is forcing me to reflect on what's been lost and gained over the last year. It will be a major shifting of gears, done before my masterpiece is painted and my  great Canadian/American novel is on top of the NYT bestsellers list.

Transitions are always tough.

Tomorrow I see Dr. Forman. Another chance to take measure of my progress. Now that's a word that cuts both way for those of us with cancer.

I better lighten up before Niagara Falls.

Yesterday my wife and I spend a wonderful afternoon with friends that I had not seen in 22 years. Fellow Canadians. We lived nearby in Claremont, and then they followed their dream to Hawaii. It had a lot to do with surfing. I even learned to surf from this old friend in my 30s.

It was so sweet to see how they had so fully self actualized, had lived the life they wanted. It was wonderful to see how gracefully they had slipped into "retirement". Much to learn. It felt good to reconnect.