Brief update, including med stuff

This, FYI, is not a communication which, in any sense, requires an acknowledgement from recipients.  People are busy. (And, if you aren't busy, you're likely enjoying a well earned rest.)

My now annual medical conference a couple of days ago, which was preceded a week earlier by the taking of a lot of blood from me (the "blood lady" is always much impressed), and its intricate and detailed analysis, indicate that there continues to be NO active Systemic Lupus (SLE} within me.  We declared victory one year ago and we declare it now.

As I've noted several times, this is unusual in SLE cases -- and extremely so in mine.  That was a full scale assault that began nine years ago, affected a number of key internal organs (but not my brain nor mind), saw me almost gone forever several times.  No physician expected the departure of SLE from me -- and I was told a number of times not to expect any remission of substance.

But the "Lupus Wolf" is gone.  

A couple of years ago, my oldest son, John (Salter), penned this:

Lupus, Latin for Wolf, and a wolf he is.
Always circling your camp on his silent feet.
 
Sometimes, when the warmth of the fire is most soothing,
he darts in to attack.
 
You fight him off.  Nurse your wounds.
Go on with your good works.
 
Perhaps oddly to others, 
you respect each other.
You for his determination,
Him for your bear toughness.
 
Still, he is always there,
just beyond the light, 
watching through yellow
eyes.
 
I give credit to "things seen and unseen."  And I also give credit to family and friends whose support has been invaluable beyond words.

This was a long, long war.  In the course of it, I've done a great deal of reflective thinking and writing.  Some of that is on our large Hunterbear website.

I've also done a fair amount of social justice speaking in our region.  In this past year, I have no longer needed to sit while I spoke.  Instead, I can stand steadily for two hours or more (in my Size 16 Lowa Mountain Boots.)

I am also very pleased to report that my loyal Penobscot cousin, George, of Maine -- always as feisty and free and activist spirit as I and, like myself, a great letter writer -- who has had his own serious medical challenges, is doing very well indeed.  Prior to his brain operation at Boston, Maria and I climbed part-way up the high hill immediately behind our home -- Bureau of Land Management lands are only a stone's throw from our house -- and, in extremely powerful winds (50-60 mph), gathered sage and sent it to George by air (airplane that is, not via the Idaho winds).  Sage has profound spiritual and healing qualities.  The intricate operation revealed no malignancy and he's recovering well.

During the very pits of my Lupus War in late 2003, there occurred the beginning of a continual flow of supportive communications from friends, most far and away.  One of those, in December 2003, came from Sam Friedman of New Jersey, a veteran social activist and a fine poet (who also paid us a very pleasant several days visit in 2005).  Here is his poem -- always a great morale boost to me:

Hunter

I know him
as electronic words
on a list serve,
printed words
in a few articles
and a book,
and by brief talk
by telephone-
and by the echoes of his deeds
which were not his
but those of the movements
he helped to organize.
As he would say,
the greatness is theirs,
or maybe, grudgingly, "ours,"
never "mine,"
never "me,"
though not through the false modesty
he reviles.
His ego resembles
a Pocatello pine,
his mind ranges over the Rockies,
his caring and vision
spills from the Arizona of his birth
through Jackson, Eastern Carolina,
Rochester, Chicago, the Dakotas,
down deep into the dark metal mines
where safety depends on power,
through the longshore bars of Seattle
and the firefronts of arid Arizona.
When he dies, the Scorpion and Centaur in the sky
Will drive Lupus from the star-fields with meteors,
and the Bears will dance around the Pole Star
to commemorate a life of their own.


Keep Fighting,

HUNTER BEAR


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm

For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial Introduction by me.  We are close upon
the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63.:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm