CANCER FUN

I went to see my beloved friend and bandmate, Jon Rauhouse, in Phoenix recently. I don’t even know how long I’ve known Jon or been in a band with him, but he’s family. More so than my own blood relations, save a few. Rauhouse, as you may know, is a pedal steel player (as well as guitar, trombone, lap steel and banjo), a rare bird in the world of musicians. He’s a rare bird for a million other reasons too, but it would take reams of paper to list them all. REAMS I tell you!

Jon has been dealing with cancer for the past couple years now and it hasn’t been easy. Duh, it’s cancer, one of the leading causes of pain and death in human animals. We hear about it every day; it’s old news, a soap opera trope, a setback, a death sentence, a ball-and-chain, and an excuse for horrible jokes which we do indeed make. No one makes a better cancer joke than someone dealing with it. That sounds awful, I know, but man, it helps! He and I laugh ourselves sick. The laughing is the part Jon says keeps him upright. Jon has great friends that he can count on, and of course my other family member, Jen Rauhouse, his wife. To say they are tired doesn’t cut it. It’s something only they or other people going through it can name. But one thing is for sure, no one else really wants to talk about it which gets really lonely…