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On October 27, 2010, I found out I had aggressive cancer. In an instant, everything in my happy-music universe imploded.<\/p>\n
On October 27, 2010, I found out I had aggressive cancer. In an instant, everything in my happy-music universe imploded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was like Jaws was savagely eating me from the inside out. My biopsy showed that I had to make some important decisions… fast. After consulting with numerous doctors, I decided to have radical surgery to try and remove the cancer in its entirety. I told only a handful of people because I didn’t want to worry anyone, especially, my family around the holidays. I did everything as usual – as best I could – until one day I couldn’t. My hand had sudden muscle loss and a number of stressful events followed. I’ve just returned home from the hospital and want to explain my recent disappearance to everybody and share my appreciation of life, music and people.<\/p>\n
Before my surgery I prepared for a number of possible outcomes, the most terrifying period of my life. Death was looming just around the corner but I acted upbeat for my sake as well as folks around me. Daily four-mile walks were a major preparation for the upcoming operation and lengthy therapy that would follow.<\/p>\n
When walking, the only music I listen to is the music I sing to myself – or what happens naturally around me.\u00a0 My first morning walk was extremely eerie on Planet C<\/span> (a term for cancer coined by a doctor friend).<\/p>\n It was foggy – just before dawn. The song that popped into my head was \u201cLet\u2019s Dance\u201d, and I started walking. At 1.3 miles I reached my local diner. I went in for a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe Are Family” was playing and the whole staff was singing along. I said, \u201cWow, that\u2019s my song!\u201d And they looked at me like I was nuts. I\u2019ve known everyone in this eatery for about twenty years – but none of them knew I co-wrote it. My eyes welled up with tears. Crazy. I know that people generally don’t know what songs composers write – but this was “We Are Family”, written by Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers, both residents of this town. For some reason, I felt really hurt. Tears were now flowing…<\/p>\n Cancer is horrifying. It makes you think a lot. My ex-partner passed away and most people don\u2019t realize many songs they sing along with every day he did. Maybe, I was just afraid of dying and feeling sorry for myself – cancer also makes you do that. But my sadness was real. Cancer is a humiliating disease and I wanted to feel dignified about something. I wiped the tears from my eyes and told the diner’s staff that I wrote the song they were singing. I finished my coffee, smiled, hugged everybody and waved goodbye.<\/p>\n My morning walks now have a dual-purpose. Do everything in my power to heal and try to put cancer behind me – and share the “Good Times” and happy memories of a lost songwriting partner to anyone who\u2019ll listen. We did fun music meant to lift the spirit – and I’m proud of it.<\/p>\n After I left the diner I sang “We Are Family” to myself, three times – in its entirety… all the way back home.<\/p>\n Source: Niger Rodgers official website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On October 27, 2010, I found out I had aggressive cancer. In an instant, everything…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}