Downstream

waterfalls and black and gray waterfalls

Thanksgiving 2020

I have cancer.

If you’ve already read the first several posts, then scroll down and begin reading just after the August 9th entry. All future entries will begin with the most recent posting date,  moving downwards, towards the oldest.

16 July 2021

What a road trip! Having cancer, has in a most bizarre way, made me become reacquainted with my “Self”. There were the dreams. Several of which morphed into full-blown manifestations.

I have a lot of things to convey. Within this scroll I’ll go well beyond just the literal aspects of my having to deal with cancer. As I continue make my entries, Ill delve into the psychological and frankly the unbelievible things that happended and are still unfolding.

What will be unvieled may amount to an allegory within an allegory. So first lest’s review…

9 August 2021

I went out one evening to meet up with my son, to play some pool, and grab a bite to eat. it was just before last Thanksgiving.

My life was already in total disarray; maybe I’ll tell you more about that later. I’m just not particularly crazy about “airing my dirty laundry” (that is unless I think I can help someone else not to make the same mistakes that I am prone to make).

We ordered a large selection of junk food.  The one exception was the jumbo shrimp cocktail, which was delicious and I believe healthy— I don’t think that constitutes what’s considered to be junk food. Does it?

Anyway, it was getting late and when I got home I went straight to bed. The food hadn’t been digested and as I was lying in bed on my back I was in pain as it was passing down through my abdomen area.

The next day, when I saw my landlord I told her of my pain and discomfort. She told me to go to the emergency room and get an x-ray.

Normally I would of just yeah-yeah’d her or anyone else for that matter, and proceeded to tell my “Self” a lie and say “I’ll go and get a check-up after the holidays. That turned out to be easier said than done.

You see my landlady was a nurse and the closest person to an angel that I have come across in years.

Anyway, I went that day and it was a good thing I did. When the x-ray came back it looked like I had a large tumor about the size of a small ribeye steak just below my stomach in my abdomen area.

I was then moved to another room and my son and I lied in bed together and we waited for the oncologist. I wasn’t scared, surprised, or angry; no, there was none of that. I had some time to think, so I did!

Housed within my mind, I allowed my ‘Self” to go back a few years; maybe fifteen, no, it was closer to twenty years ago, not really sure. Anyhow— I landed for what must have been the hundredth time in an all too familiar place. This place constitutes one of only a handful of memories that will never fade— why this has to be so, I haven’t a clue.

The September 11 attack had just occurred,  My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  My father had just passed, on the same day as one of my closest friend’s funeral service, which happened to be on my mother’s birthday…

My life was turned completely upside down. I am a tough old dog. At the time I was the founder and CEO of a financial services firm. 9/11 was also a direct affront to the financial services industry. Over the next six to twelve months my operations collapsed. This is the first time I’ve ever mentioned this, as what I went through was nothing compared to the plight of others; who was I to throw a pity party for myself.

The same goes for my losing a close friend, my father, and almost my mother.

After all, I had a wife and two small children to think about, I was destitute. What else could go wrong? Plenty! Oh, did I say I was tough? Maybe not so much.

Back to Thanksgiving 2020, and just beyond. It’s the twenty-year anniversary of 9/11. I’m alone, destitute, and have cancer. So I have no time to feel sorry for myself. Did I say I was tough? Yes, I am!

 *************************

Downstream, 8/31/21

blue and red dragon illustration

I'm "KRAKEN" up!

Several days after finding out I had cancer. And the night before my next appointment with my Oncologist. I was still quite restless. At this juncture, all I really knew was that I had a large tumor in my abdomen area.

That evening, after I fell asleep. I was awakened, by a noise that I heard just outside my window. It sounded as if someone was whispering. I sat up immediately, gave pause, and strained to listen. Then I heard someone whisper, Metamorphosis”.

I realized that no one was there and that I was just dreaming. I was now wide awake, so I went to my computer and decided to unwind by surfing the net.

Apparently, I fell asleep at my desk. When I awoke, I recounted having yet another strange dream. I remember looking at a large creature sleeping at the bottom of the ocean.

It was a Leviathan; no, more like a giant squid. Let’s just go with a Kraken! I remember spearing the creature, and when I did, its mouth opened wide. Then out came what seemed like hundreds of tiny little Krakens.

What was I thinking? These dreams were quite strange. Apparently, I was still out of sorts and stressed out.

The next day as my son and I were driving to see my oncologist, I told him about the bizarre dreams I had the night before.

During my Doctor’s appointment, we were discussing how challenging it can be to determine what type of cancer I may have.

During the middle of my oncologist’s talk, he gave pause, leaned forward, and spoke ever so quietly, he said the word “Metamorphosis”. Are you kidding me, what’s up with that?

Now fast forward almost a year. I’ve undergone extensive chemo treatments, and I was supposed to be “cancer clear”. As added insurance, I was advised to undergo some light radiation treatments. This is the part where things take an apparent turn for the worse.

It appears that my cancer has returned. My oncologist, along with the others on the Tumor board, really aren’t sure what to think. Do I have cancer or not? Could I just be damaged goods, as evidenced by the radiation? Or, could we have inadvertently released the hive of baby Krakens from the biopsy procedure.

Let’s just hope I have an overactive imagination, that there’s no cancer; and I’m just damaged goods.

Next up! Another biopsy. Grreeaaat!

Just Because, Just Because

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Just because time had made us weary, and our spirits could no longer speak

doesn’t mean that life is dreary, as once again we too shall seek

Just because we once were one, doesn’t mean we weren’t meant to unravel

even though we were formidable and strong, we were also very fragile

Just because we had naught to show, was really of no great matter 

for all that held meaning when we were one, was the sound of little feet going pitter-patter

Just because it was “Just Because”, doesn’t mean it was meant to be

and that’s just because we loved as one, and that’s all we were ever supposed to see

 

 

Digest

Digest 3

This is a very rough draft of something I wrote a long time ago. I was in a dark space at the time. I didn’t complete it.  I didn’t like how it was unfolding. So I never posted it until recently (A few years later, now in Sept. 2021)

The reason is, I wrote another poem called “Just Because”. I managed to turn darkness into light. All I had to do was find the switch.

I know I’ll have to come back and finish what I started. Then I can delete this as I should. Why must I haunt my “Self”. I didn’t even know that was possible.

Digest; In-jest

Just because I cry doesn’t mean I’m broken

Just because I’m broke doesn’t mean I have nothing to give

Just because I’m alone, doesn’t mean I’m devoid of love and being loving

Just because I’ve been shamed doesn’t mean I should feel ashamed

Just because I am old, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to live

Just because I yearn to laugh doesn’t mean I’m self-indulgent

Just because I fantasize about revenge doesn’t mean I’m vengeful

Just because there’s no respite doesn’t mean I will not find refuge

Just because I’m different doesn’t make me special

Just because I’m special doesn’t make me  unique

Just because I’m mired w/in my past doesn’t mean I cannot see my future

Just because I am so exhausted doesn’t mean that I am far too weak

Just because time has made me weary and my spirit can no longer speak doesn’t mean that life is dreary I will once again begin to seek

Just because I’m telling doesn’t mean there’s something to show

Just because I am “A Mystic” doesn’t mean  I have to glow

Just because I reason doesn’t mean I am critical

Just because I can reason doesn’t mean I am ‘Enlightened”

Just because I am optimistic doesn’t mean I am trusting

Just because I’m complex doesn’t mean I don’t wish to be understood

Just because I’m terrified doesn’t mean I will not act

 

 

 

Digest; In-rest

Just because you’re gone doesn’t mean you’ve left

Just because you’ve left doesn’t mean I will not give chase

Just because you still exist doesn’t mean you own my thoughts

Just because you have things to show doesn’t mean you must claim and go

Just because you were once so giving doesn’t mean you had a heart

Just because you love doesn’t mean you know of love

Just because you remember doesn’t mean I won’t forget

Just because you choose to forget doesn’t mean I wish to serve your memory

Just because you’re still becoming doesn’t mean you’ll always be recognized

Just because you’re “in-tune” doesn’t mean you must “atone”

Just because you are loyal doesn’t mean I should or could always be

Just because you are an illusion doesn’t mean I am delusional

Just because you chose him, her and them over me doesn’t mean I don’t exist

 

 

 

Digest; @-best

Just because we were once like them doesn’t mean we became them

Just because we were with them doesn’t mean we were one of them

Just because we wanted to be like them doesn’t mean we were followers

Just because they followed us doesn’t mean we chose to lead

Just because we were once one doesn’t mean we were never meant to unravel

Just because together we were formidable doesn’t mean we were not fragile

Just because it was “Just Because” doesn’t mean it was meant to be and that’s just because we loved as one and that’s all we ever needed to really see.

 

…just put a fork in it!

...just put a fork in it! 4 vbp9v1rh sc

You stop, look down, you place a toehold underneath a blanket of nothingness; you become the fork. You see, feel, hear and touch with your imagination. As you genuflect, you give pause, realizing, that you’ve stopped “Becoming”.

As others pass, like you, they’ve chosen to comply, to become complicit! The specialists go left, the innovators move to their right. It’s where both paths meet, that you’ll find your now soiled cloak, you use it to provide full cover, as you don’t want to be seen; it’s of no matter, that you have been shamed by an injustice.

Invocation without “Benediction” is a must; as reasoning, without seasoning, leaves lust. Can one step ever be considered a new path? Can what’s cliche’, once again, become novel? What gives rise to wisdom? Don’t ask me, just put a fork in it!

A State of Mime

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One’s “State of Perception” is the ally of the “Enemy of the State”. The purity of truth is toxic for both the individual and the state. Complex algorithms provide sustenance for the Specialist who is the “Head of State”.

As this creature and his minions lie in wait, upon their feathered beds of hypocrisy, they prepare to strike; their goal is to eradicate all enemies of the state. First, they will rid their world of the wise; then the learned, and finally, the willing.

It’s not where or when the state ends, that allows for freedom to begin. Though it is where freedom ends, that you will find a sentry, who with his gun, and his disarming smile, welcomes you as an ally to his newly minted borderless “State of Perception”.