gotta write

Doesn’t happen often anymore, but there have always been times when “things” start to overflow, when life just gets too full, when the psychic levees and dikes that I’ve built and maintained over 50-odd (some, very odd) years simply aren’t going to hold.  Y’all welcomed me here….so you asked for it.

Just got off the phone with my brother, elder, smarter, prettier, a master craftsman in any medium you care to choose.  At one time, and perhaps still, he was known world-wide as a ceramicist, for his specialty in raku.  That being more or less an invitation to penury, he made his living as a specialty builder/carpenter/artisan in Telluride, CO:  whenever a job came up that simply wouldn’t cooperate, whether because of design or medium, John got a call.  It didn’t hurt that he was effectively a “City Father”, having moved there in 1972 when it was still a silver-mining town with only a scattering of artist DFHs and, imagine this, practically no skiing.  

He was the guy who could free-hand router an intricate sign that HAD to be perfect, because the restaurant in question had just imported San Francisco’s finest chef; who could do the dry-laid brick vaulted roof of the Town Park’s humongous barbecue oven; who could miter the granite for a corner so it looked carved, not assembled.  His first welding project, upon acquiring his first gas rig, was a one-foot-diameter icosahedron — I still don’t know how many sides the fucker has, but it’s a bunch, and each triangular side…well, I can’t even describe it, far less imagine putting together what must be hundreds of individual, tiny wires; I was down there last winter, and, after 30 years in the weather, it still held my weight (I waited until he wasn’t looking to try stepping on it).  But what really exemplified his craft to me, and will mean nothing to most folks, was his drywall:  I’ve never met a pro at this rather mundane trade who will believe me, but John did smoothwall without sanding.  That, for mere mortals, is roughly the equivalent of flying.

I use the past tense, because John, after nearly 10 years of fighting against an affliction first diagnosed as Parkinson’s, has more or less resigned himself to the new, Mayo-approved, diagnosis:  MS.  His left hand has had a wounded-bird-like life of its own for five years, during which time he continued working, primarily tile and stone work because it’s slow and meticulous work anyhow, so his affliction was less noticeable; and he remained in high demand.  Now, at 61, his right hand has joined the flock, his gait is uncertain, and the face that conquered every self-respecting woman on the West Slope, from 16…oops, 18 to 60 has developed characteristic twitches.  

It happens, yeah, it happens.  The longer I live, the more it is clear to me that mankind really wasn’t designed to live much past 40:  there’s just too many boogers out there, and each year is simply pushing your luck.  Hell, a sister only three years my elder died this time last year of a particularly nasty cancer; and I’m the proud owner of the Philadelphia chromosome, which entitles me to a $100 pill every day to ward off chronic leukemia.  But, damn, Polly had done pretty much what she wanted to do, didn’t have kids or, really, any particular aspirations beyond being with her mate (not a minor aspiration, by any means, but…).  I’m probably just fine until something else (like maybe my Camel straights) carries me off; and I’m resolutely kidless & have helped my mate to establish a respectable nest-egg, so I’m pretty much expendable and, after 25 entirely unanticipated years as a non-drunk, figure I’ve had a pretty good run.

But John, well, it just doesn’t seem right.  This was the top kid at one of the top prep schools in the country, 800 on every test he ever took, still does trig in his head.  A brilliant and beautiful mind that chose, consciously, to forgo almost certain success and wealth so he could concentrate on making beautiful things.  More importantly, a hugely successful father, much to everyone’s surprise, given his pre-nuptual predilections.  And, now, just as his kids are beginning to blossom…..

I don’t tend to rail against “fate”, nor yet pay a lot of attention to the “tragedy” of human existence:  I’ve lived through my share of such stuff, not-infrequently encouraged by my own stupidity/carelessness, and, well, I sort of got over it…no offense intended to true believers in the Obama message, but the corollary of this attitude is that I pretty much gave up “hope” a long time ago and don’t consider it to be much of a loss.  But it terrifies me, now, that John will give up hope:  his hands have been his life for 40 years, by his lights, and they’re gone.  

Damn, I wish I could drink.

a

24 comments

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    • RiaD on August 3, 2008 at 07:03

    {{{{john}}}}

    please try to be there for him…to talk to, to confess his fears to, to reassure…

    in turn..we’ll be here for you. to give you hugs , let you scream, cry & vent your frustrations…

    i’m ever so glad you felt comfortable enough to share this here, with us.

    please, please let me know if i can help. if nothing else, i’m a damfine listener…  

    • RUKind on August 3, 2008 at 07:47

    it won’t change anything except you. 😉 Sounds like John made some excellent life choices. Working with head, hands and heart is the best choice of all. It’s all about creating things that are pleasing to sense. My guess is he’ll do as fine in this phase as he has in the past.

    Life is about spiritual growth and that Telluride box canyon has a certain feel to it. He picked a nice place to settle. My first time there was for two Dead shows back in ’87. Half the crowd spent half their time looking at the scenery with the band playing behind them; it was that beautiful.

    Then again, there was that tailings pond at the top of the valley. I remember seeing postings to not eat any fish caught in the river. Parkinson’s then MS as diagnosis? Has he had a MELISA test for trace elements? Some of our diagnostic science has a lot of catching up to do with environment vis a vis the nervous system. I’m having some personal enlightenment in that area myself lately.

    Blessings. 😉

  1. My younger bro is my best friend.

    Hang in there.

  2. reminds me of a story one of my great teachers told me about his childhood.

    His father was a farmer and one day he took lunch out to him in the field. His dad knelt down and picked up some dirt in his hand, holding it out to his son. He said, “This is the connection that life is all about.”

    My teacher said that for years he thought the connection his father was referring to was the one between the dirt and his hand. It was only later that he realized that his father was really talking about the connection between his hand and his heart.

  3. creativity is in the head and heart. Although your grieving for him as he was, he will find a way to use what he spent his life developing. As an artist craft person myself I’ve found my hand skills are just the physical manifestations of what I pull out of my soul, or the universe out there. Give him time and he will find his own way to use and develop what is within. A new voice, a new view. Beautiful things are not limited to the concrete.  

    We have a long time friend who has MS. He is/was a politician of the good sort. He started out on his life journey as a video documentary maker. He has learned to live with his condition. He has changed his method of work but his MS has not really changed him. The fact that he has a sense of humor and a loving family will help your brother in this transition.

    Your love for him is no small matter and while you feel helpless in the face of what has happened to him and grieve for his former self realize that he is still who he was. Past 40 huh? Well a lot of good stuff is done by people who realize that the best is yet to come. He sounds like he has strong chi and will find a way to use his gifts and talent. You can help perhaps with writing and your skills along this line could help him realize that even words are building matter.

       

    • kj on August 3, 2008 at 17:57

    can royally suck.

    fwiw, by writing this, it looks like you did do the next right thing, and there be witnesses to that.

  4. at all… he just didn’t measure success in money. but in beauty. and i love the dry wall. you have to be so free in your mind to do such a thing…

    also reads to me like your life, and John’s, has been rich. and full. good.

    we all decay and die. we’re lucky if we just die, like my mom. heart attack. coma. dead one week later. never knew what hit her. but then, without knowing, she didn’t have a chance to close things out, if she had things that needed closing.

    every now and again, i remember this man at her memorial service. none of us knew who he was. but he sat there sobbing. maybe one of those guys who just walks into funerals and memorials services. or maybe. . . . . . . but we’ll never know.

    i’m thinking that John’s beautiful mind will figure out a way to give away, yet, its beauty. . . even in your story. and even to you. why not hope? why not?

  5. …Your diary brings in so many echoes from my own life.  I have one very best friend deteriorating rapidly with Parkinsons, another who’s had Parkinsons for more than a dozen years and has hardly changed during this time.  I send comfort and love.  

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