I know when that note sounds
and I feel touched everywhere
that anything could happen…
anything bad
and I feel touched everywhere
that anything could happen…
anything bad
unbothered, not hiding its shape
it is the obviously-wrapped gift
--a rock, a key, a boomerang
you already know
--a rock, a key, a boomerang
you already know
so I am this stranger crying until
it makes me stranger--becomes
my first experience of myself
as only a memory
__________
A note apropos of nothing: It made me so sad to hear that James Van Der Beek who played Dawson in Dawson's Creek (a comfort watch back in the day that I started dipping back into during the pandemic) died yesterday (so young!) from colorectal cancer. I'm horrified to learn that two years of cancer treatment have left this successful celebrity actor's family needing a GoFundMe to pay for their children's education. The US healthcare system is brutal. [Also brutal, the look Big A gave me when I said Dawson had "battled cancer" because every obituary I had just read used that phrasing. I should do better.]
________________
Pic: The frozen Maple River. The temperatures look like they're going up--gloriously--so all this is going to be melt and runnels soon.
16 comments:
Maya, I just read something on Drinks With Broads about the fundraising for Van Der Beek's family to pay for cancer treatment and I was aghast. WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT. Listen, I know the Canadian system is far from perfect, but AT LEAST WE DON'T DO INTO CRIPPLING DEBT TO PAY FOR CANCER TREATMENT. My FIL had colon cancer and if they had to pay out of pocket for chemo, etc., well. I just cannot imagine. I guess I think of "stars" as being immune to the horrors of the US healthcare system, but it's not so. How very sad. The last thing a grieving family should be worried about is paying for cancer treatments.
Quite sad.
This is so sad! When I heard that he left behind six (!!!) children, I thought well, at least they won't have to worry about money. Apparently I was wrong. How is this possible???
Beautiful poem : )
Medical debt is awful and just wrong.
I was similarly saddened to hear Bud Cort died (though not as young) because I adored Harold and Maude when I was a teen. At the same time, though, I was surprised because for some reason I thought he was already dead (and that does make it less of a blow.)
I was also ridiculously sad about the James van Der Beek news - I never watched Dawson's Creek, but he played 'himself' on Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 and he was so funny and warm, plus I have a soft spot for celebrities who make fun of themselves. And then I was stupidly shocked about his family being bankrupt, I should not have been.
Oh gosh, I hadn't heard this news. I have such great memories of watching that show when I was a teen/in college. How awful that his family needed a go fund me page to pay for his treatments! I had assumed he'd be very well off after years of being a successful actor. How sad. Our healthcare system is so messed up.
What a lovely poem Maya. So sad.
I never watched Dawson’s creek, am not familiar with this actor. I am familiar with the Bullshit that is our medical system in the US, my mother put 20k on a credit card from medical debt. She paid off about 16k of it, but because of interest, she still owed almost the entire 20k when she died. In her words, ‘my blood, it boils’. You’d better believe when that credit card company suggested that I should pay that dept off, I said no as kindly as I could manage (not the employee’s fault….but GAH!!!!!!)
Yes, Nicole; it IS bullshit. I know lots of families where people have refused treatment because they felt it would put their families in financial jeopardy.
Truly.
Right, Jenny? I thought famous people at least would have enough money for medical care!
I'm sorry about Bud Cort, Steph. I looked him up... He was even younger than my mom...
I think he had a walk-on role in _Modern Family_ as well, come to think of it! Yes--the bankruptcy or insolvency or whatever is frankly unfathomable.
Lisa, sorry to be the bearer of bad news... Yes, just hearing that Paula Cole song takes me back to the 90s!
Thank you, J.
I'm so sorry about your lovely mama, J. But "because of interest" I cried reading those words. (And then I was moved by your compassion for the credit card employee... stop messing with my feelings!!)
I’m sure I wasn’t nearly as nice as I tried to be. I may have mentioned to them the debt my mother still had after paying so much every month. UGH. So avoidable bullshit, right?
His family has plenty of money. They have THREE houses. Sell one, get a job, and move on. I was sad about his passing, but I find myself IRATE about how this privileged woman is acting like she's one step away from living in the streets. MOST people in the US are one cancer diagnosis/job loss away from bankruptcy, but she's not one of them.
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