January 6, 2004: New Years Update

Friends:

1. After my seemingly endless pre-Christmas note, this update will be nearly all business.

2. An update on my counts: I mentioned that I had done my monthly tests on the day before we left for Canada, and yesterday I received the results. Again, these numbers don’t mean much except by comparison, but the end of November my counts were 5.08. On December 22 they were 2.04. This is amazingly good news.

3. General Health. We had an amazing Christmas at my parents, and since returning I’ve been fighting some low-level virus things, but on the whole been doing well. The steroids make me a bit manic (and pudgy—I’m losing weight but gaining inches!), but I’m slowly figuring out how to go to bed before 2 a.m. Now that the “New Year” has started, I’m happily plugging away on an editorial project—which is as maddening as it has potential—and getting ready to give Sheri an amazing, anonymous Christmas gift of a weekend in New York City! I’m so, so very happy that this worked out. Look out Les Halles.

4. 100 Huntley Street. The interview on Canadian “Christian” TV on Christmas Eve was odd, but very good. I’d been expecting a conversation about how my cancer “journey” has led to advocacy on behalf of the “voiceless” (and especially AIDS victims), but the host/interviewer, Rhonda Glenn, made a choice to talk exclusively about the process of dealing with cancer.

There were a lot of reasons for this, I believe, not the least of which was the fact that her dad died of cancer a few years back and her mom is currently dealing with breast cancer. I think, for Rhonda, this experience of dealing with grief/difficulty has been a mirror into the way that evangelical theology fails most people, and so my appearance (and the process I ended up talking with her about) gave her a kind of window/permission to think in a slightly different way than her typical “televangelist” hat allows. She must have told me at least a dozen times before the interview how “refreshing” it was to have me as a guest.

They also told me that they want me back to continue the conversation.

If you’re interested in seeing the interview, you can watch it online at:

http://www.crossroads.ca/100hs/2003decprog.htm

The interview is about 16 minutes long, and begins at about the 34 minute spot during the show. Dwight the PR/communications guy gets frustrated watching the interview, but it’s really not that bad—tho’ they lit me all wrong, and made my hair look more grey than it is.

5. A Prayer Request. While most of us were enjoying family and the Christmas celebration, one of my favorite people in America, Janice Chaffee, learned over the holiday that she has Multiple Myeloma—something I know a bit about. Janice is a writer and record industry mover/shaker, who has written several books aimed at empowering women in Christian leadership and grace. Her husband, Jim Chaffee, now runs a management company and used to be VP of Myrrh Records. They are both among that far too small list of “the good guys” in Nashville. Because of the advancement of her cancer, Janice will be starting treatments virtually identical to those I had nearly three years ago. It’s not an easy road, and so I’m asking that if you pray (most of you on this list do) that you begin praying for Janice, Jim and their two sons.

6. AIDS. Christmas MUST be celebrated heartily, and I pray you did. But just as we need to be jovial, we need to be steadfast in remembering that there are 30 million with the HIV/AIDS virus in Africa. Please go to www.DATADATA.org and check out their “Action Center.”

7. Shopping for a cure. If you’re still buying stuff online, do so through www.myeloma.org, and link at the “helping the IMF” spot. A portion of your spending will go toward research into a cure for myeloma and other blood cancers.

We love you all.

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