Serious Shit

First, a history lesson. Mark, my brother-in-law, is an Iowa State Trooper and December 2003 was a month / year combination that no one close to him will ever forget. He was working on had pulled over a driver. As the driver of the other car and Mark sat in Mark's squad car, a second car rear-ended him. The driver of the second car turned out to be an 18 year-old girl who was drunk - two times the legal limit. Even though he had his lights on, she said, after the crash, that she never saw him pulled over. Also, immediately after the crash, she was concerned with getting her CDs that were in her car.

In the decade since this incident, he has had physical therapy and done stretching exercises and taken medications. It's been a constant battle for him to live pain free.

On 12/30/2013, Mark had surgery to replace part of his neck. This was not a fusion, but, rather, a replacement. He was discharged from the hospital on New Year's Eve. Yesterday, he was readmitted to the hospital. He was having serious issues.

I joke a lot with Mark. He's been a good friend to me, perhaps more like a brother than I could have ever imagined. Before we left last night to return home, I told him to "get this shit figured out." We've talked about being in a band together with him playing rhythm guitar and me playing drums. I've also told him it was his job to find a lead guitarist. So, when I told him to "get this shit figured out," he smirked and said, "I hope to feel better so I can even play the guitar."

That stung. That really sucks to have a musician say that he hopes to play again. I thought about his words quite a bit on the way home. What if something happened to me where I couldn't play drums? Would I be like Def Leppard's Rick Allen and "get this shit figured out" and go on to play drums in a band? Sincerely, I hope I never know.

Speaking of serious shit, I also was in a conversation with Susie and Jean about faith last night. I had seen a pamphlet that was about being angry with God. I shared that I was angry with God back in 1990 which is when I auditioned for Horny Genius in January 1990, they asked me to join, I declined, citing that I had to focus on my school work. In September 1990, Horny Genius toured Europe. I was mad at God that I was studying dead authors instead of playing drums in Europe. Jean looked at me and said, "Why were you mad at God?" I said that I wanted to be playing drums in Europe but He kept me here. She said, "You have freewill - that's what God gave you." She went on to say that she has never been angry with God. I listened to her and I thought about her words as we drove home as well.

I don't know where these two things are going to end up - Mark's recovery and Jean's statements about faith and God - but I will say 2014 is starting out with a lot of questions and, frankly, not a lot of answers.