It Might Get Messy

Eddie Hazel said “I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe. I was not offended. For I knew I had to rise above it all. Or drown…in my own shit.” Hazel was the genius guitar player with Funkadelic/P-Funk/George Clinton. In a career eerily parallel to that of Brian Jones, it only took him a few albums to drown in his own pharmacological shit.


On a cool December evening in 1862, a Union army private tried explaining to his comrades his discomfort at walking so easily into Confederate Fredericksburg, Virginia: “Shit, they WANT us to get in. Getting out won’t be quite so smart and easy.” Nor was it. Next day the federals spent hours being slaughtered on the backside of Fredericksburg, attacking up a steep hill into the teeth of the Confederate defensive line.


That same winter and spring, U.S. Grant was “experimenting” with methods for capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi. Before settling, by default, into a summertime siege, he tried 7 separate approaches, ranging from sneaking up quietly at night to re-routing the Mississippi River. Eventually, of course, in 1863 at the same time R.E. Lee was watching the Army of Northern Virginia get shredded in Gettysburg, Sherman was rewarded with the city’s surrender.


And why, exactly, am I dumping these rambling anecdotes on you, my so-patient readers? Well, because of the lesson. Or rather, the extended lesson. 


Which is this. A big chunk of life is just showing up. But sometimes you have to show up repeatedly. And sometimes you have take a repeated beating to get where you need to go. Tomorrow I see Dr. H, my oncology surgeon. It’s an exploration to see if we need to biopsy this painful area on the right side of my mouth, over there at the base of my tongue. The spot is symmetrical with the tumor we hammered out from the left last year. It seems to be growing increasingly sore. Neither Dr. H nor radiologist Dr. N saw anything down there a month ago at my last visit. But they were concerned enough to schedule a quick return.


I’ll let you know the outcome over the weekend. Meanwhile, some midsummer nature photos up over at http://docviper.livejournal.com/, and professional blog still cooking at http://aehsfoundation.org/ . So rock on, all. I know I am!