Easter Blessings

Nice full house for Easter services yesterday: big choir, and a congregation which included most of the perennials and quite a few of the annuals as well, plus a fairly sizable family contingent consisting of my dad and both of my kids, along with one of my brothers and his three children.

Preached my favorite Easter sermon, "Easter, Again?" and preached "comfortably and without difficulty" thanks to a dose of Mucinex DM, some extra strength Tylenol, and a big handful of Halls Mentholyptus throat lozenges. Still, it was hard for me not to indulge the somewhat morbid thought that this might well turn out be the last sermon I preach, ever, and how appropriate/ironic that my basic theme should be "the teacher is dead, but the teaching lives on...." Pretty much gave it everything I had, and it showed. Lots of energy and good spirit in the congregation as well, which really lifted me up.

Of course, I am tentatively planning to be back in the pulpit again the Sunday after next (assuming I'm feeling up to it), although after that I have guests scheduled all the way through my formal installation on May 4th. But by my count yesterday was the 627th time I have appeared in the pulpit in my almost 30 year career, and at least the fifth time I have preached that particular sermon, having previously delivered it in Carlisle, on Nantucket, on Whidbey Island, and in Roseburg Oregon. And I've sometimes wondered to myself whether one of the reasons I seem to change congregations so frequently is just so I can have another chance to preach it again. So if it does indeed turn out to be the last sermon of my ministry (which it probably won't), I certainly could have done a lot worse.

Lovely Easter dinner later that evening with the kids and my dad back at the Eastland Hotel. Originally Stephenie and I were going to cook Easter dinner, but we couldn't agree on the menu (she vetoed both lamb and ham; I vetoed turkey and "tofurkey"), and then when she got a good look at the size of my kitchen....As it turned out, we were one of only three tables in the restaurant, so we really took our time and savored the experience of being together.

My meal had kind of a "down under" theme: New Zealand lamb and a Tasmanian Pinot Noir...and didn't really think until afterwards about the carbon footprint of those particular selections, or the symbolism of celebrating Easter with foods produced in a part of the world where Easter marks the beginning of autumn rather than the return of new life in the spring.

Anyway, the kids both left earlier this morning, and later today my dad and I are off to New York for a consultation/second opinion Tuesday with a thoracic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Still haven't gotten my insurance company to sign off on this out-of-network service, but since no one at Dana Farber could see me for two weeks (and didn't want me to begin my chemo before they had), this seemed like the better option. Besides, my treating oncologist (who I like very much) trained at Dana Farber anyway...so what's the point of getting a second opinion from the folks who already taught my own doctor everything he knows?

The truth is, I'm getting this second opinon mostly for the peace of mind of my friends and family anyway, simply to reassure them that I'm getting the best possible medical treatment available, and that they aren't holding on to "the good stuff" only for the special people who ask for it. The best thing this fellow could tell me tomorrow is that he likes very much the treatment plan my current physician has set up for me, and that I should begin it right away. That information alone is worth every penny I have to pay for it, even if I end up paying it out of my own pocket.