Monday, August 28, 2006

Fearless Forwarding

It's taken me a while, but I've decided that any forwarded emails that suggest any negativity…i.e. if you don’t forward this to at least 8 people you will have a year of bad luck…I will delete!

I hope this will eventually dawn on others who keep sending them.

When forwarding emails, I now BCC the recipients, so that others can’t add them to their own email lists. I've been told too that it is safest to copy and paste to a new email, rather than to forward the original.

Also, it seems to me that if you send something to someone else you should not attach any conditions at all…i.e. if you forward this you will have 7 years of good luck! Why not just let it go?

If I think the emails are good and funny or inspiring or whatever, but they have souring conditions attached, I sometimes edit out that part, and send them on.

Some of my friends have asked that I do not forward anything at all. They feel that all communications should be personal. But I understand that for others, it is simply a way of keeping in touch.

I always get a thrill when I recognize a friend’s name in the lists of spam that arrive every day, no matter what they are sending and whether or not I pass it on. Sometimes it reminds me that I haven’t communicated with them in too long, and so I send a note!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

In the kitchen...and work

It is Saturday morning, and since I have a closing shift today, I am cooking my lunches for the next few days, a mix of brown rice, broccoli, carrots and beans.

I am laying off meat as much as possible while I am trying to change the tide of events in my body!

In answer to my sister Dianne's comment...yes it has been a while since I played music in public, although I continue to write and play at home.

For those who see me at work every day and are reading my blog, let me clarify why I choose the Arts as my occupation. This is because writing is still my primary focus and because for most of my life, music my main occupation.

While I was playing up in Courtenay in the 80’s, my friend Richard who sheltered me at his home while I worked my gigs up there, accused me of “trying to do an end run around reality”. At the time I was miffed but now see the truth of his statement.

Try to raise a family of 6 on a busker’s allowance! This and too many years of welfare put the nails in the coffin of my marriage. No matter how I tried I couldn’t find a regular job, partly my age I guess and no work history to speak of! In 2001, my wife had had enough, and so had I! I had to move out.

I spent almost 2 years working for an elderly friend of mine, Herb Gilbert as his caregiver and personal attendant. Herb was a professor of Fine Arts at UBC for many years and we collaborated in bringing Paul Reps up to Vancouver for a series of his "playshops" in the early 80's. He was also a very close personal friend and benefactor to our family. He passed away in November of 2005 and the world is short one fine artist, activist, pacifist and supporter of environmental healing. His website is: www.vcn.bc.ca/~oratorio


Then, one of my old band mates from our Winnipeg group "Friday the 13th", Rob McPherson re-appeared in my life, analyzed my predicament and threw me a lifeline. He got me a job in the call center of a major hotel chain, and I have been there close to 5 years now. Rob, I will forever be in your debt as your help has prevented several likely family disasters from happening.

Well, I better finish preparing my rice bowl...

Friday, August 25, 2006

KAT scan

I am back home from a morning trip to the hospital and a full day's work!

It is Friday night 10:52 p.m. and I had my CT Scan this morning.

I was surprised that the hospital rescheduled me so soon; I guess the scan-mechanics know their stuff! Didn't want to alert my family, although they wanted to know, as there just wasn't enough of a window.

So hit the bottle again last night…the bottle of Telebrix that is, which I guess helps the scanner to track the road map of my body!

Today I went to the hospital on my way to work. The worst part was the waiting room. I got there at 11 a.m. and everybody who came in after me, went ahead of me. I didn't get called in for nearly an hour.

Finally a nurse called me in. I was pacing by then and uptight as the receptionist had answered my earlier inquiry of "Have they forgotten about me?" with the statement, " Oh no, I checked and they have had a couple of emergencies." Since I was the only one waiting, could she not have said something, especially when she saw me pacing (and she did)?

Have you ever had the pleasure of changing into one of those polyester night gowns, putting your clothes in a bag, and then sitting in the waiting room with your skinny bare legs and feet (still in socks and shoes) hanging out, with a another group of fully clothed people?

Plus she gave me a cup of flat orange liquid and didn't ask, "Would you like a drink?" It was "Drink this and then they will call you in." But FIRST, she gave me an IV!

Then she informed me, "When they inject the inert iodine into your body, you will feel a hot rush and a tingling and itching all over, and you may think you are wetting your pants!"

Great...and just what I needed to hear.

(Note: My nurse's name was Angela, and I complained that the previous person who stuck a needle in me left me with a huge bruise. She gave me the IV and promised she would do her best not to bruise me. She kept her word. Thanks Angela!)

I had my hands up with fingers locked behind my head and the iodine rush going into my veins.

Going into the CT Scanner felt like a scene from Star Wars, or the Matrix...and half way in, my elbows got trapped in the cylinder. The technician was saying, "Sir, are you okay..." as I struggled to get my elbows out.

As my body was passed in and out of the Scanner, there was a recorded voice that sounded like Darth Vader's saying "Breathe IN" and then "Breathe"...which I assumed meant "Breathe out"!

The good news: At no time did I feel I was going to wet my pants!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

My Religion

I was baptized into the Roman Catholic Faith and followed my parents’ directives in this until I left home at about age 19. Once I got my own place I dropped all that and began focusing in earnest on developing my musical career.

In my 20’s I began traveling and studying the religions and philosophies of other cultures, dropped my rock and roll focus and turned to contemporary folk. As I traveled I played music and learned how to write my own songs.

In Greece I met Veronica, Irish born Canadian girl who became the mother of my son Chad. She too was an artist and writer and shortly after Chad was born gave me a book by Idries Shah called The Sufis, which seemed to neatly sum up everything I had been thinking about the relationships between culture, religion and philosophy. I had already been practicing meditation in earnest for a few years and so was familiar with some of the territory covered in this and other books.

I also met an authentic traveler and teacher on the spiritual path, Paul Reps whose presence over the next few years influenced me greatly.

In 1979 I met my wife Karen who was to become the mother of our children Chaya, Nika, Ky and Kadir and we began our journey together.

In 1986 Karen, the girls and I traveled to India…(the boys had not yet been born) and it was in Delhi that I was initiated into the Sufi path and given the name Baba Farid. I asked my teacher, “Does this mean that you expect me to become a Moslem?” He smiled with the greatest love and elegance and said, “No Baba, I do not expect any such thing. I am simply giving you the best of Islam to study.”

I have a drop each of the major wisdom traditions running through my veins (as we all do), and I joked with a friend of mine the other day that they are simply battling out their differences in my bloodstream.

A machine is a machine is a...

After faithfully drinking my bottle of "Telebrix" last night mixed in 18 ounces of water and juice I checked voice messages this morning to hear:

"This is the Radiology Department...our CT Scanner has broken down. We will reschedule your scan as soon as possible."

Anyway, now I can spend my morning figuring out how to edit my blogs and other good stuff!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Whirling

It is Monday morning and as I load my antivirus patterns I am also downloading a song by Jim Page I found on the net by searching the blogger site from my daughter Chaya’s page www.chaya.ca

Chaya I love you my warrior daughter and you are one of my heroes. You stuck by your dad and were courageous enough to pick up the drum and join me on stage at La Quena in Vancouver while you were still young enough to be a target of your peers!

Of course, all my children are my heroes...Nika (my Lotus blossom full of talents and promise), Ky (multi-talented visual artist, a poker ace and self-supporting responsible union worker)and Kadir (who is "The Greatly Capable" as his Arabic name suggests and at 12 years of age has already flown a plane) and my oldest son Chad http://sparo.inescapable.org/ too who is a gifted artist I never get to see because he lives in Montreal.

While reading my daughter's blog, I recalled David Campbell's comments about his own blog. David is a veteran singer/songwriter and one of my closest friends. His webpage is http://www.davidcampbellarts.com/

I had discovered that Jim posted a blog this year on the same program as Chaya’s and so I enjoyed reading it at work the other night. He suggests that the blog is a good way of keeping everyone posted while he works on his music.

He is still soldiering on in Seattle, “living in an old house and waiting for it to fall down”.
Jim's website is: http://jimpage.net/


Jim is the most famous, non-famous singer I know and has been praised by Bonnie Raitt, Utah Philips and others. He is also my friend from my Palo Alto – Los Gatos days and the person who most inspired me to start writing songs. He also introduced me to finger style guitar in the late 1960's. This became my path for many years to come.

So Chaya, David and Jim, I owe you guys big time. I even stole Chaya's gag line from her first blog..."testing, testing!"

I have decided that a blog is a good idea, although I am way behind the times in this!

My friend, brother in arms and musician extaordinaire David Campbell gave me the hint months ago but I was slow on the uptake.

My daughter's battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma kicked me in the butt and jump started me & got me thinking.

But I was still not ready to hear!

Then in early July 2006 I was diagnosed with cancer myself, an aggressive form called Mantle Cell Lymphoma...(though I am not nearly ready to bow out yet and have no intention of doing so)!

I found a book by Neil Ruzic a called "Racing To a Cure" and felt that I had found a brother in arms. I was about to take this book to my first meeting with my hematologist, when I discovered that he had succumbed to this same cancer in 2004, although he had refused chemotherapy, as this cancer is resistant to chemo. However he lived for quite a few years despite this, a very full life, and did a tremendous amount of research.

I decided then though I would go through the intial tests to show solidarity with my daughter that I would try my own version of immunotherapy...i.e. boosting my immune system.

I have been doing this for the past 2 weeks, although I had a bone marrow biopsy which drained my energy and will have a CT Scan tomorrow. I am consuming my telebrix tonight.

In the meantime, I have decided that an on line blog is a much better idea than keeping thoughts to myself...

World Dervish

I am following in the footsteps of those much wiser than I.

Hi Chaya. Hi Jim. Hi David.

Testing, testing, ...

Is this thing on????