Bring You Through the Mirror

“If you going to get cancer,” my doctor said, “this is the kind you want to get.’’

And with those words he set about removing a small brown doodad on the side of my head.

I had seen this thing a few weeks ago and I wanted to believe that it was a shaving cut, but something told me that it was a bit more serious.

I was long overdue for a trip to the dermatologist anyway, so I went in for tests and waited for that phone call saying that there was nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately, the phone call I received was one telling me to come in for surgery. The good news---the fantastic news--was that it wasn’t melanoma.

My doctor said I could leave it alone, but the thing would just keep getting bigger.

I was concerned that my love for sitting out in the sun might have caused this problem, but he dismissed that idea.

“These things just happen,” he said.

So now I have a line of stiches on the side of my head that would do Boris Karloff proud, and I’ve got to change the dressing every day before going back next week to have the stiches removed.

I was still wearing the bandage on Saturday when my sister and I went to the theater for the second time since Covid brought down the curtain on life as we know it.

This time we went to see “Girl from the North Country,” a fantastic production with a book by Conor McPherson and songs by Bob Dylan.

The play is set in a boarding house in Duluth, Michigan in 1934, and despite the anachronism, Dylan’s music works perfectly in helping tell the story of desperate, isolated people trying to survive.

How Does It Feel?

I first saw this show in London in 2017; I saw it again when it came to New York a few years later, and then I signed up to see it again.

I’ve rarely seen a Broadway production more than twice, so three times is a record for me. Walking into the theater on Saturday, I started to wonder if the show could have any impact after so many viewings.

But those concerns vanished as soon as the cast started singing Dylan’s “Sign in the Window.”

The show really helped deepen my appreciation for the theater experience.

One of my favorite moments occurs when Mare Winningham sings a fabulous version of “Like a Rolling Stone” with a single spotlight shining down on her.

While you can record what was happening on the stage, you’ll never be able to capture sense of being in the audience. You really had to be there.

And then on Sunday it was my turn to take the stage, or the Zoom in this case, as my most wonderful writing class had one of springtime our readings.

I can remember when we held this events in real world locations, but the pandemic changed all that, of course.

And now with Zoom we have people joining us from such locations St. Louis and Mexico.

These readings are always a blast, as I get to see my classmates and “meet” new ones.

So, with the surgery, the play and the reading, I had a pretty exciting week.

Maybe I could get Bob Dylan to write a song about it.