Gratitude

This passage from the Hebrew daily morning liturgy has greater meaning for me since my surgery:

"Blessed are you, The Architect, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who shaped the human being with wisdom, making for us all the openings and vessels of the body. It is revealed and known before your Throne of Glory that if one of these passage-ways be open when it should be closed, or blocked up when it should be free, one could not stay alive or stand before you. Blessed are you, Miraculous, the wondrous healer of all flesh."

My Michael Jackson Story

I'm having surgery next week, and have never been so fearful of anaesthesia. I have lost trust in anaesthesiologists - the ultimate drug dealers. I fear I won't wake up. However, the doctor I met with only warned me that a tooth could get chipped because of the tube down my throat.

Constant media messages do infect our brains. I don't have to be embarrassed to think, wow, I wonder what it feels like to go under like that. I will find out next week.

When I think back on previous surgeries, it felt like non-existence... I think Michael Jackson wanted to non-exist, and stay forever young.

Old Fashioned Fireworks!

This small town family fireworks celebration is never to be forgotten! Now part of our family's personal mythology, it is also a window into a simpler time in America's history.

My first effort at editing my video footage and putting it on YouTube, in retrospect it is also from a simpler time, just like the fireworks themselves...