Reflections2017

 Annually, around Halloween the big money producers in Hollywood trot out the newest horror flicks, knowing full well that people will stampede to watch them. (Evidently, people like to pay for being afraid.) Horror and its ally, fear are a sure bet with movie goers. But that is all about entertainment. What I'm dealing with is not.  I have been thinking a lot about fear in my war with cancer. I personify my fears for identification purposes by calling them elephants. Paulo Freire writes in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," people like to label things. It helps. They never seem to disappear completely. Sometimes they are loud and sometimes quite. But they are hanging around, even for a cancer survivor. I could argue that they are louder for this survivor because of the fear of 'second cancer.' It is so real, so scary.   I try to remind myself that fear is a perfectly natural human reaction. Everyone has it. People are born with fear built into their psychic makeup. It...

 Mary lives in a hospice in Winnipeg. She has been there for almost 18 months. She is in the final stage of Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. She has fooled the medical world more than once by looking at another six-month contract. Sing Wue is from Guilin, Guangxi province in southern China, near Shanhu (Cedar) Lake. This is a very picturesque area and attracts many tourists from around the country. She is in Canada on a student visa to study the Canadian social system at one of the universities.  This is a short story about relationships and how they are essential to our health and happiness, especially in times of sickness. It is a poignant story. ***   “Right this way please, Sing Wue.” She obediently follows the receptionist down the hall to a door on the right with a nameplate Elizabeth Brown, Psychosocial Oncologist, Administrator. With the receptionist slowly and quietly opening the door, she enters. The receptionist leaves, cl...

 Many parents introduce their children to music at a very young age. This seems to be a universal 'rite of passage'.  0- By the age of 3, he was introduced to the keyboard by his stern and often cruel father; a musician by some measure. 0- By the age of twenty-something, he was an accomplished composer, earning a living. He had written 2 piano concertos, 6 string quartets and a symphony. His name was becoming known beyond the periphery of his backwater hometown, Bonn. Requests for his work grew.  0- By the age of 26 he became increasingly aware of a buzzing sound in his ears. 0- By the age of 50 when he was close to being totally deaf, he composed and performed his greatest works; including 5 piano sonatas and 5 string quartets. 0- By the age of 50-something, well after profound deafness settled in, he could not hear the audience cheering, clapping and saying "Bravo! Bravo!" when perhaps his greatest symphony (the 9th) was premiered. I am, of course referring to...

  "If you want to succeed, you have to know how to face the challenge. In sport as in life: There are defeats, and there are victories."  Edson Arantes do Nascimento, ('Pele'), May 2006  Yes, the great Brazilian, Pele. He is probably the best soccer / football player the world has ever produced. He scored with this thought.   With people as in the affairs of nations, there are times of peace, progress and a sense of direction. In darker times, there is only war, turmoil and a sense of lost direction. To an outsider the signs are few; for the war is within self. We chose when to be happy; when to be complacent and when to throw caution to the wind and take up arms and fight the invader.  My personal War on Dry Mouth is declared.  Simply put, I hate eating because of Dry Mouth. I prefer not too eat, thank you very much.  Consequently, I have not been eating enough protein. Best nutritional practices suggests that for an adult Canadian male recoveri...