With apologies to Sly Stone, I want to Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). Tis the season and this ham filled turkey is grateful not to be on a plate.
When Russ reminded me this week's holiday deadline is a day early, my first thought was "O no chemo." Not to make this about me, but today is infusion day. No telling what will come falling out when I sit down with my crayon to scribble.
But here we are.
If you could just read last year's Thanksgiving, you'd have it. I wouldn't change a thing, just double it. Because what I didn't plan was to still be riding rides at the cancer carnival. I planned to write the thankful to be cancer free column.
Not quite. In the words of Jimmy Cliff, we have many rivers to cross. Thankfully, crossing rivers is one of the things I'm good at. A kayak's always in the back of the truck. It's kind of in the column name.
To sum it up, in the last 18 months, I've received 26 chemo infusions, mostly weekly but five were for three weeks each; six three week immunotherapy infusions; 43 radiation treatments; five PETscans; and six CTscans and MRIs.
I'm thankful that the combination of all these things are slowly, but surely, shuffling me toward the carnival gate. The original tumor and cancer are gone. The second spot is gone and the remaining spots have shrunk.
I'd be grateful to never repeat any of this, but the next few chemo rounds are scheduled and that's okay. I'll be most grateful to avoid immunotherapy for the next 40 something years. A miracle for most, and I'm thankful for that, but not for me. I was whining like Ozzy going through changes.
So on this Thanksgiving, a holiday thanks to Abe Lincoln, I give thanks for all of the good people who have included me in their prayers, in their affirmations, and in their kind thoughts. Those good vibrations wrap me like Brian Wilson's theremin. Oo ee oo wa wa.
Some of you might have noticed the elephant in the column. Let's make that a great big Turtle. Oh no chemo.
I may seem oddly fixated on recently deceased musicians for a Thanksgiving column. To that I'd say, there's truthiness there. But they are who I'm most grateful for on this holiday. Music plays an oversized role in my life and you don't get music without people making it.
Many I admired left us this year and for them I'm thankful. I was a kindergarten kid with Puff the Magic Dragon in '63, written by Peter Yarrow. My dad played Sam and Dave records, featuring Sam Moore. The Turtles featuring Mark Volman sang Happy Together, one of the first songs I learned to play on my Spiegel Catalog guitar.
I'm grateful for David Thomas, Marianne Faithful, Dave Allen, Garth Hudson, Danny Thompson, Sonny Curtis, who you likely never heard of, and I'm thankful for more you likely did.
With apologies to Todd Snider, thanks to music, I'm feeling like an alright guy. That's a pretty good feeling to have and I'm grateful for that every day.