“I don’t have any days that I can waste.”
This is part 3 of a 3-part series.
Part 1: Patterns All Over the Country
Part 2: An Equalizer
Hold a Conversation
Can you imagine leading a conversation about this story? Where? With whom? What kinds of questions would you pose? (See How to use the questions for reflection for one approach.) Please email your questions to us or post them in the comment box for our consideration. If you use them in an actual discussion, let us know how the conversation went.
Transcript for Interval to Cure Cancer
When somebody tells you you have cancer, you’ll try anything. If someone tells you to walk around with an egg on your head and this will cure it, I might be wearing a hat but I’ll have the egg. [Laughter]
Well, originally, I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma back in 1996, which is the name for kidney cancer. So I had the kidney removed in 1996 and it was thought that it all was gone. Somehow in 2007, it turned up in my lungs and liver, and some in my brain. And so, that particular cancer has no cure, and the best that you can do is to keep it stable. And if you can do that, you can be okay.
Attitude has a lot to do with your health. I think music helps me in that way – having something to look forward to and having something else to think about even, because I’m writing a lot and I’m playing a lot. And I have those things. I’m not sitting around moaning and groaning about “I have cancer.” I feel like I’ve gotten a shot across the bow here, and I’d better get moving. You know, because I might not be… And so, the things I have that I want to do, and I have lots that I want to do – I don’t have any days that I can waste. And I feel fortunate in that matter. You may go out and get hit by a car right now and not have that warning. So some of the projects that you intended to do next year might not get done. If you have it in the back of your mind that everyday is precious, and somethings you might not get done, then you get busy doing some of the things that are important to you.
I feel that we all have been put here for certain things to do, and I think mine is music. If I can make people happy, and if I can leave some pieces behind that will make people happy listening to them even after I’m gone, then I think that’s important. It’s a great thing to compose music. I feel like it’s great when you hear back what you compose. I think everybody has a talent. I feel somewhat like all these things are floating around and being transmitted by the creator, and we all are like radios, and all of us are tuned to whatever channels we tune into. And some can pick up this thing, like, I’d be no good at math, I’m afraid. But somebody’s tuned to the math station and they can get that. I happen to be tuned to the music station, and I can pull that in.
Plus, I think music has a spiritual aspect to it. And, there are some people that are even experimenting with certain intervals can cure certain things, you know, certain sounds can cure certain things. I think if I find the interval to cure cancer, I’m going to be pounding on that. [Laughs.] All the rest of my compositions will be based around that. [Laughs.] Audience will be saying, “That sounds like the last thing he played!” [Laughs.] But at any rate, you know, I think music is very helpful.