Hi Friends,
It's the last night before my last chemo. We have been crossing off the days of November, and as I look at the photo, I see that with each passing week my hand has become increasingly firmer as I make an "x."
I now have a terrific playlist together for the drive home and to help get me through the next few weeks. Thank you.
Have I mentioned the bell ringing ritual? (I think so, but chemo brain...) The chemo ward has a navy bell called the "Liberty Bell" and patients ring it as they leave their last chemo. It makes me tear up every time I hear it - I think of what people (and their family and friends) have gone through for the last few months or even years. The patients getting chemo, all hooked up to their IV poles, clap (to the extent that they can) and cheer and nurses line up to applaud and give the graduate a hug. It's really moving. I'll be giving the bell my best effort tomorrow.
To add to the festivities, my parents will be ringing their navy bell tomorrow afternoon in Halifax and Julie Salverson will ring a bell in Kingston on my behalf. We will post a picture of our ritual at the Princess Margaret once we get home tomorrow.
With love,
Kip
Hey Kip. I will also ring a bell for you tomorrow afternoon.
ReplyDeleteHere's a poem I like a lot. It's a translation of Peruvian poet Mario Benedetti's "Por Que Cantamos" ("Why We Sing"). I know it's quite dark, and sad too, but also full of hope and defiance, and I love it. I hope you like it too.
"We sing because shouting is not enough...
And we are the militants of life...."
Hope tomorrow goes well and easy.
-jonnie
Why We Sing
If each hour brings its death
if time is a den of thieves
the breezes carry a scent of evil
and life is just a moving target
you will ask why we sing
if our finest people are shunned
our homeland is dying of sorrow
and the human heart is shattered
even before shame explodes
you will ask why we sing
if the trees and the sky remain
as far off as the horizon
some absence hovers over the evening
and disappointment colours the morning
you will ask why we sing
we sing because the river is humming
and when the river hums/ the river hums
we sing because cruelty has no name
but we can name its destiny
we sing because the child because everything
because in the future because the people
we sing because the survivors
and our dead want us to sing
we sing because shouting is not enough
nor is sorrow or anger
we sing because we believe in people
and we shall overcome these defeats
we sing because the sun recognizes us
and the fields smell of spring
and because in this stem and that fruit
every question has its answer
we sing because it is raining on the furrow
and we are the militants of life
and because we cannot and will not
allow our song to become ashes.
The bells are ringing for me and my girl... Showing my age, but my favourite version of this song is from Holly Near's Album with Ronnie Gilbert, ca 1984? So when you ring the bell, sing it out!
ReplyDeleteKip, I'll be thinking of you tomorrow as you ring your bell at the end of your last chemo treatment. Thinking of ringing bells reminds me of this Christmas song:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULHn978OJh4
Come on, Ring Those Bells
Everybody likes to take a holiday
Everybody likes to take a rest
Spending time together with the family
Sharing lots of love and happiness.
Come on, ring those bells,
Light the Christmas tree,
Jesus is the king
Born for you and me.
Come on, ring those bells,
Every-body say,
Jesus, we remember
This your birthday.
Celebrations come because of something good.
Celebrations we love to recall
Mary had a baby boy in Bethleham
the greatest celebration of all.
Come on, ring those bells,
Light the Christmas tree,
Jesus is the King
Born for you and me.
Come on, ring those bells,
Every-body say,
Jesus, we remember
This your birthday.
or there's this classic ....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPYese-Hl8M&feature=fvw
(you can ring my bell -- anita ward)
i'll be thinking of you kip, and if i can find some bells, i'll be ringing them for you
Dear Kip: Hallelujah! We will be ringing bells for you at the School of Music to celebrate the completion of your treatment. I hope it goes well today.
ReplyDeleteLove, Carol-Lynn
Hi Kip. Glad to know you are almost through the chemo! I'll definitely ring a bell or two today.
ReplyDeletetake care,
Matt
Still on a Kate and Anna McGarrigle/Emmylou Harris theme (and saw Rufus last weekend). This song is appropriate for your bell-ringing day, Kip. Love to you.
ReplyDeleteGoin' Back to Harlan
Anna McGarrigle
There were no cuckoos, no sycamores
We played about the forest floor
Underneath the silver maples, the balsams and the sky
We popped the heads off dandelions
Assuming roles from nursery rhymes
Rested on the riverbank
And grew up by and by, and grew up by and by
Frail my heart apart
And play me a little shady grove
Ring the bells of rhymney
Till they ring inside my head forever
Bounce the bow, rock the gallows
For the hangman's reel
And wake the devil from his dream
I'm going back to Harlan
I'm going back to Harlan
I'm going back to Harlan
And if you were Willie Moore
And I was Barbara Allen
Or Fair Ellen all sad at the cabin door
A-weepin' and a-pinin', for love
A-weepin' and a-pinin', for love
"Bells are ringing, listen to them ringing"
ReplyDeleteSang this with 12 little people and their grown-ups today.
I can't get to the music school to ring along with the rest of the faculty, I have to teach again soon. Bur Rogan, Aidan and I will all ring again in your honour.
Much love!
Alison