Looking Forward, Looking back

EricEngstromBlueHighways

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Happy Holidays to everyone! Today is December 26^th, 2012.   

It is my twelfth day after completion of two and a half weeks of radiation treatments at the Marin Cancer Center, eight days after my first 5+ hour infusion session of chemotherapy drugs, and a  after an injection of Neulasta. It’s an expensive  drug to help build my white cell count, reduce nausea, and fight the cancer affecting my body.

I’ve had great support from my close friends during this very stressful time – visiting, coaching me, bringing me to and from treatments, and generally providing much needed support.  Gillian Hayward, a close friend and cancer survivor, has been a wonderful “coach” for me during the process.

My daughter Kate arrived a week+ Tuesday evening after my “Chemo day” and her counsel and love is really keeping me going.  I’m having a hard time keeping up with occupational and physical therapy, eating the food put before me, and dealing with increased pain levels since the Chemo, all considered normal side effects. I check in weekly at the Marin Cancer Center with Dr. Gullion and for cancer counseling.  My next Chemo session is January 8th, with another session

Last week I visited Dr. Chea, my infectious disease specialist, to determine the next steps in my treatment. He told me that I look great – much better than he thought I would. I’m hoping that we can modify the infusion schedule and dosage for the antibiotics.  I’ve been on about five hours of drip treatment a day; two one-hour and three half-hour intravenous sessions are the current “mix”. 

At the end of last week he worked with work with my surgeon, Dr. Lee, to develop a schedule of IV treatments I can receive by infusion twice a day twice daily, and taking the other antibiotic by mouth three times a day.  We’ve accomplished the treatment modifications so I can stabilize my treatments and plan to go home in early January.

I'm finally feeling well enough to see fiends and communicate with them and see them occasionally.  My goal for the New Year is to move forward positively, to learn to live and work productively making art, enjoying my life and contributing my talents and presence again.

THE BOX SHOW 2011

Once again THE BOX SHOW rocks the rural West Marin art scene with 150 new art boxes by 150 artists.
Located at Gallery Route One in downtown Point Reyes Station, California, the show is open every day from 11am to 5pm and runs through September 18th. All the artists were given a 9" x 11" x 5" deep pine box to use as the basis for their art piece. All pieces are for sale to the highest bidder in the six-week long exhibition, with live bidding at a party the final Sunday at the gallery from 2pm to 5pm.
The proceeds from the exhibition go to Gallery Route One for support of its gallery operations, the GRO Artists in The Schools program and the Latino Photography Project as well as environmental art exhibits and "Far From Home" exhibitions in the gallery's Project Space. Gallery Route One is operated by 20 professional artist members and is known throughout Northern California for the excellence of its contemporary art exhibits.
Pictured are two entries in this year's show - "1212 2nd Street, San Rafael" by Eric Engstrom, and "1969 - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" by Les S. Moore, who used posters created by Eric Engstrom in 1969 for the Boston Tea Party rock club in Boston as his inspiration.
Visit the Gallery Route One BOX SHOW and see some amazing art and help the gallery with its important educational outreach.

Boston Common October 15, 1969

It was a brisk autumn afternoon in Boston on October 15th, 1969 and the crowds kept coming to protest the Vietnam War. Word spread fast that it was to be a major demonstration and that several local folksingers and bands would show up. By the time mid-afternoon rolled around a cool breeze and a darkening gray sky threatened the 150,000 people that had come to call for the withdrawal of American soldiers, sailors and marines from Southeast Asia.

The crowd was restive and angry, and I decided to start photographing the demonstration just as Bonnie Raitt, who was attending college in Cambridge, began to play her large guitar and sing out about freedom. I happened to point the camera at a little girl holding a large sign saying "war is not healthy for c and other living things" and she raised her two fingers at the moment I pressed the shutter.

I took many more pictures that day, but the little girl giving me the "victory" sign has stuck in my mind for almost 42 years. I think she was about six years old, which would make her almost fifty now. I wonder if she remembers being there, and the kind of person she grew into.

Later toward dusk, the crowd got ugly, and groups of demonstrators started assembling in packs to walk to the Cambridge Common breaking windows and trashing cars and property along the way. Part of it was frustration, and part of it was inflammatory speeches - and maybe for some it was just an excuse to get away with something and raise hell. It was an amazing day of contrasts between the little girl with the sign, Bonnie Raitt and the 150,000 other people there was a general feeling of frustration and foreboding.

Looking back now and knowing that the times since then have resulted in a new war that America decides they can win every five or six years brings a profound sadness. Memories of the late Phil Ochs singing "and I ain't marching any more" and Country Joe and The Fish's tuneful lament "one, two, three four what are we fightin' for" brings only frustration, depression and anxiety. Have we learned anything at all in forty years?