Follow Up ... to a year

As we have both - and I use the plural because we have both been affected by this journey, though in markedly different ways - been very aware of the anniversary of the beginning of our journey into cancer this week, both Vicki and I have been searching for some sense of 'meaning.' We had occasion to talk about this search on our way to a concert on campus, but neither of us had many answers.

The Piedmont College Chamber Singers presented a concert of music related to Holy Week. It included mostly modern pieces, such as one written in the aftermath of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, but they also sang a piece by Brahms and some modern compositions of older poetry.

Interestingly, the first piece of the second half of the program was a setting of a poem by the 17th century English poet, Henry Vaughn. It was the program note for the piece that caught my eye. I do not know who wrote the notes, so I cannot give proper attribution, but the words had an impact. "The period shortly before the publication of this poem was an extremely important period in Henry Vaugn's life. He suffered a prolonged sickness, which he interpreted to be an encounter with death and a wake-up call to his 'misspent youth.' Vaughn believed he wass spared to make amends and start a new course not only in his life but in his writing. It is during this period of Vaughn's life, around 1650, that he adopted the saying, 'moriendo, revixi', meaning 'by dying, I gain new life.'"

Perhaps, that phrase captures the best meaning of life, especially one that has been transformed by disease. It is only as one realizes the impermanence of this life that she or he is free to shape life in order to make a difference.