Celebrate (recap)

Okay, the whole thing starts with a dog. A friend of mine, the same friend discussed in last night's program and last week's program about intolerance, had a dog with a tumor. The tumor turned out to be cancerous and was surgically removed. At the time, about a week ago, she was told that the dog would probably have six months to a year before things got too bad and the dog had to be put to sleep. So she resigned herself to make the dog's time as good as possible.

Then a couple of weeks ago, the tumor came back. It came back fast and large. So it was eventually decided on that it would be more humane to give the dog a very short and good life than a slightly longer one full of pain, drugs and immobility.

This all hit me very hard. Not only because of her pain but because it seemed incredibly unfair. I know cancer never seems exactly fair but on an older person, they've usually engaged in some kind of risky behavior to make it seem less absurd. Even in an older dog, you could kind of understand it. But this was a young and otherwise very healthy dog. A dog with big sad brown eyes. The fact that you can't explain cancer to a dog also makes the whole thing extra hard to deal with. At least for me.

Anyway, because of all this sorrow. I was thinking about this particular friend a fair amount and also I was generally out of sorts about life. So I thought I would try to combat my own sorrow and discomfort with a celebration.

This same friend, who was on my mind, saved my life a couple years ago now after not really being in contact for some time. But back around the time when we first met, many years ago, she once gave me just about the most romantic sort of moment. It was a spur of the moment thing but in a mutual friend's house in Indiana, she read I Sing The Body Electric to me while petting my hair as I rested my head in her lap.

I thought I would try to re-create that for you all. Admittedly, my version isn't nearly as sexy but I'm not nearly as sexy an individual. Also, she wasn't trying to fit any of it to music. Looking back on it, I should've recorded each chapter individually and fit the music to it afterward but the notion came to me as I was listening to Chicken and Biscuits and I wanted to recreate the moment of the first idea as faithfully as possible. Perhaps it would've been better to forego that immediacy for a more polished approach but my instinct is always that a flawed spontaneous moment is more interesting than a perfect planned one. If you have opinions on this, I'd love to hear them, as always.

Anyway, she's gotten another dog now. It seems a little soon but it is a helpful distraction for her and the other dog in the house so perhaps all is well that ends well.

Don't worry, next weekend we'll be back with more inappropriate humor and barbed attacks at the current state of politics.