Before I get to my planned post, I want to remind you that the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation is now conducting their annual survey. It's anonymous and should only take about 10 minutes to fill out. the survey closes on October 19. Why not do it now while you're thinking about it? Here's the link:
https://survey.theflf.org/s/flf-global-patient-survey-2026
If you'd like an answer to the "why not take it now?" question, the FLF has you covered. Click here and you'll find a blog post from them that describes the impact that previous surveys have had. It has been a big influence on oncologists, researchers, patients, and others in the lymphoma community. Representatives of the FLF speak at meetings of oncologists and share the results. It's a way of directly affecting how cancer doctors learn about what patients need. It ultimately comes back to helping you -- and the rest of us.
So please take just a few minutes of your day and take the survey. Thank you.
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As I discussed recently, I injured my shoulder a few weeks ago, and I'm having surgery this week. I'm going to be in a sling for 6-8 weeks and then have physical therapy for 6-12 months. Ugh. It's going to be a long road.
I've had a phrase in my head for a few weeks. I first saw it on a meme online, and I've seen it a few times since then.
"The trouble is, you think you have time."
I think it's been in my head partly because my wife and I have been thinking more about retiring in the next few years, and partly because of the shoulder thing, and how it's been added to a long list of physical issues I have been dealing with over the last few years. I'm in decent shape -- I can still do what I want to do. But I'm close to a big birthday, and it's one that makes you think about time.
This isn't a sad post. I'm not worried about the surgery and what comes after. In fact, it's a happy post.
Let me be clear about that quote. It's often attributed to Buddha online, but wasn't actually said by Buddha (as far as we know). Instead, it was written by a writer named Jack Kornfield, in a book called Buddha's Little Instruction Book.
But even if it's not a few thousand years old, the sentiment is still clear. We need to live our lives now.
Last night, my wife and kid and I did something really fun. We saw Ringo Starr in concert. We actually got to see a Beatle, live on stage.
And it almost didn't happen.
I got notice about the concert about three months ago, in an email that gave me early access to tickets. My youngest actually took a class about the Beatles in college, and has been a fan since I used to sing "Golden Slumbers" as a lullaby years and years ago.
I bought the tickets for us online, and got a message saying "You'll get the tickets electronically a few days before the concert." No problem. I put it on the calendar and didn't think much about it.
But then a couple of days ago, I remembered we still didn't have tickets, and started looking through my email to see if I had missed the tickets. But I couldn't find anything. I contacted the venue, and they couldn't find any record of the sale. We checked our credit card statement, and there was no record of the sale (which is good -- it means we didn't get scammed or anything like that).
But I was so sad and demoralized. I've been so exhausted lately -- I can't sleep well because of the shoulder pain. I'm scrambling to get things done at work while I still have two good arms. This disappointment was more than I wanted to deal with. My wife suggested we buy tickets online that someone else was selling (for twice what I would have paid with the early access). I was not enthusiastic about the idea. I mostly just wanted to go to sleep.
But my wife and kid, the biggest Beatles fan in the family, thought we should go, so we bought the expensive tickets.
And we had an incredible time.
It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
I've been assuming that you know who Ringo Starr is. If you don't know, he was the drummer for the Beatles, the greatest band ever. (We're not going to argue about that. It's my blog and I can say what I want.)
Ringo is 86 years old. This might have been the last chance I got to see a Beatle perform live.
He plays with his All-Starr Band, made up of people who were in famous bands many years ago. This line-up includes Colin Hay from Men at Work, Hamish Stuart from Average White Band, Steve Lukather from Toto, and a few others (including Warren Ham, who played about 15 different instruments). All of them sang songs that made them famous, like "Down Under" and "Africa." The crowd was a lot of folks about my age, or older, people who listened to this music when they were young. We all sang along, loudly and joyously, including me, my wife, and my kid. It was such a fun night. I'm so glad I didn't give in to the sadness and disappointment.
And the best part was, all of these musicians were in their 70s, if not older. What an amazing example of doing what makes you happy and not worrying about time. They were dancing around on stage like teenagers.
One of the best parts of the night? Hearing Colin Hay sing "Down Under." I loved Men at Work when I was a teenager, and I actually had tickets to see them in concert, but they broke up a couple of weeks before the show, and it was cancelled. So after we sang and danced to "Down Under," I leaned over to my wife and kid and said, "I've been waiting 40 years to hear Colin Hay sing that song live." It was so cool.
And, of course, we got to hear Ring Starr sing his Beatles' songs -- "Yellow Submarine," "Octopuses Garden," and "A Little Help from My Friends," along with a bunch of his solo hits. He's still very funny. He's still very energetic. And he can still drum like he did when he was in his 20s. May we all be so full of energy and joy and love when we're his age.
It was what my wife had hoped it would be -- a very happy night before a couple of months of not being able to do what I want to do. But I'll be back again.
This is probably my last post for at least a week. I'll try to post an update when I'm feeling a little better. I won't stay away too long. I get bored easily.
Take care, and remember what the trouble is.
