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...