When
we mapped the Marfa metaphor for the concert there with the Watkins
Family, as those of you who were in on it will recall, we came up with
”Light”. The Light of Art that illumines and enriches society,
civilization and humanity.
That is why it was so ironic that when I arrived in Marfa to play the concert I was practically blind.
I had been slowly losing my sight since 2007, and then in 2010
...
it took a dramatic turn for the worse and by the time of the Marfa
concert in October of 2011 my world was a Monet painting with pretty
colors but no distinct identities. Thanksgiving and Christmas were cold
and lonely and came and went in a steady deterioration of the remaining
sight, and by the time January 2012 was here I was legally blind. I
needed assistance for most all activities, which was lovingly and
unselfishly provided by my friends and companions Jessica, Robin,
Katrina, and Jeffrey ---sometimes much to their own discomfort and cost.
I could not drive or cook or get around on my own. It got worse, but I
will spare you all that. Suffice to say things were bad, but my friends
were good – even saintly.
In this darkness, I reached out to a
lovely friend and fellow musician, Janni Littlepage, and asked if she
knew someone who might help. She suggested Alexander Holmes, a surfing
ophthalmologist here on the peninsula. When I went to see him he said
“Well, the bad news is that it is cataracts. The good news is that it is
cataracts. I can fix those” He scheduled me for surgery late January
and in a simple, painless, operation he replaced the cataracts with
brilliant clear new intraocular lenses –inside the eye – and I can see
clearly now, just like the song says. So, where I was blind, now I see.
In fact, I see better now than I ever have in my life.
To those
who have inquired, that is where I have been my dear friends, wandering
in darkness. But it is no longer dark. And though am returning only
slowly to things, still digesting the lesson in all this, grateful for
every step, I can see the light of intelligence has informed every hand,
guided every move, and provided every direction. The light of Marfa
shines; the Light of Life expressing itself in each unselfish, generous
and beautiful act.
It is an extraordinary, inspiring, and lovely thing we do: that we heal each other.
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