Memorial Day, John F. Kennedy, Strength, Gratitude, Alone with my thoughts, I am not alone, Eugene Riverbend Annex

This Memorial Day, I would like to paraphrase one of John F. Kennedy’s inspiring quotes that give me hope. “The world’s problems will not be solved by people whose horizons are limited by obvious realities that make them cynical and skeptical. We need people who can dream of things that never were.” Kennedy’s wording was good but I think his wording was limiting. Just because something has always been a certain way, does not mean it needs to remain so. Is it better to give up essential liberty for a margin of security? Jack Burton does not do better when better is not good. Jack Burton does good. Guess what, we can have liberty, security, peace and love. We are American. We are citizens of the world. We can dream of and make a peaceful, loving world that has never existed on Earth. I am a veteran of the U.S. Army and I do support the troops. I want to see our military people safe and in fact, every being of the world safe and "free".

I’ll share one other Kennedy quote/paraphrase that I read and then I am off into a more personal, factual, ramble of a blog entry.
“The United States has a special, threefold responsibility:
- A responsibility to our citizens
- A responsibility to the world that are effected by our decisions
- A responsibility to the next generation of humanity”
I was going to paraphrase John Kennedy more but I did not think it was useful and in fact distracted from John's beatiful sentiment.

Foremost, I would like to express my gratitude for my friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, care givers whether they be past or present. Lyrics from a song sang by the Alarm in the mid 1980’s come to my mind. The song is a beautiful, hard driving song and I recommend a listen to those who enjoy the rock and roll genre. Below are excerpts from the song.

The Alarm, “Strength” lyrics from the Album Strength released in 1985.
Who will light the fire
That I need to survive
Who will be the life blood
Coursing through my veins

Someone write me a letter
I need to know that I'm still alive
Someone give me a telephone call
I need to hear a human sound
Someone open up a door
And let me out of this place
GIVE ME LOVE
GIVE ME HOPE
GIVE ME STRENGTH
GIVE ME SOMEONE TO LIVE FOR

Thank you all for the love hope and strength. Thank you for giving me so very much to live for. Oh sure, I may make the effort to survive cancer look easy, fun, sexy, and perhaps even effortless. If you are not laughing out loud, I am in between winces because I have just bit my tongue that was planted firmly in my cheek. I suppose I am feeling a bit of the weight of the scary cancer diagnosis, the emergency brain surgery the day before Thanksgiving, a week in the hospital during Thanksgiving, 33 confining radiation treatments, 1 hour and a half long, clunky, noisy, Magnetic Imaging Resonance (MRI) rides every other month, daily chemotherapy since 3 days before Christmas, and medical bills up the yoohoo.

Being alone with my thoughts 44 miles away from the nearest, lighted traffic signal with only two, elderly, lovely, German Shepherd Dogs to share a roof with can be an unhealthy thing. I have found that too much time to ponder life’s trials allows the mind to wander into unproductive areas of being. Too much time can give the mind time to wander and wonder what is physically going on between a human being’s ears. Is what I am feeling side effects from my powerful medications that could be doing damage to healthy brain tissue? Is what I am feeling cancer growing at an alarming rate? Is what I am feeling damage done by enormous strength? These are probably normal feelings.

However, I have the support of many good people and in fact the universe. I have visualizations of osprey and wolves picking off viable cancer cells and killing them. I have visualizations of condors and vultures spiriting off the dead cancer cells on uplifting thermals of clean, vibrant, nourishing blood. Thank you for the strength. I propose what I am feeling is the strength and power of the universe helping to cure the cancer within my body with good, loving, life force energy.

I am not alone. I asked my mother to come up and stay with me for awhile. Bless her heart, Mom arrived on the Amtrak on Saturday. I was at the Eugene Train Station yesterday to meet her and we walked around the Eugene Saturday Market for awhile. What a cool place the Eugene Saturday Market is. Good organic food, unique locally produced goods and crafts by our neighbors can be bought at the market. It is a good time and I bought Mom a cool pair of earrings perfect for the Fourth of July made from recycled materials that normally would have ended up in a landfill.

I visited a few coworkers at my old job at the Riverbend Annex, in Springfield last week. It was very uplifting for my spirit to see these good, hard working, and talented people again. I hope to make arrangements to visit more with them as a group and as individuals in the near future. Seeing them again, touching, and talking with them was definitely an infusion of viable lifeblood into my circulatory system that benefited from the good energy immediately. My visit with my old coworkers was hastened by my appointment I had with my new primary care physician. I like and trust my new primary care physician. Did I tell you that his assistant is drop, dead gorgeous, errrr……I mean very good at her job? I am going to have a cholesterol panel done soon and we will see if I am able to make a primary care physician assistant appointment.

I have my next subjects for my next blog entry later this week. Fishing, Dogs, Compulsions, Yoga, Yoga Teaching, Eugene Saturday Market, Chainsaw, Saving Trees. I want to end this post so as to not make the post tool arduous for my gentle readers and to enjoy a lazy, Memorial Day with my mom in the beautiful, McKenzie River Valley with my dogs and a short hike along Horse Creek.

Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
“Like I tell my wife, an adjective can ruin a perfectly good noun. I drive as fast as I can see. Power to the VW drivers.”