It's always been you...

 

 

About three thousand years ago, when I was a young boy, I became a fan of Olivia Newton-John. My dad enjoyed a bit of country music and, let's face it, she was easy on the eyes. My mother thought her voice was pretty and enjoyed her music as well. The first album of hers that we bought was Have You Never Been Mellow (MCA Records, 1975). We'd been out for some errands in our little town and fell into Parker's department store. Dad had a few hardware items he needed. Since both the record and toy departments weren't too far away, he let me peruse the racks of Pet Rocks, Slinkys, Hot Wheels and the many records they had for sale. 

I stumbled upon the Olivia LPs and was looking at the ones they had. Dad saw me and came over to see what I was looking at before heading back to the service counter. I joined him a few minutes later when his order was brought up. Much to my surprise, he told me to hop back to the record department and pick up the album I was looking at. We didn't spend a lot of money on records, so this was a really big deal. And actually, it was the only Olivia album I owned until Physical was released in 1981. Sure, I had a few singles I'd purchased during those intervening years, but that album still holds a special place in my heart. 

As an aside, let me also say that the Physical Tour in 1982 was my first real concert. The tickets were only $26.00! And if you do a comparison to that value today, it's still just around $71.00, which is quite a bargain!

Olivia had released a few more albums through the 1980s and single-disc career retrospective entitled Back to Basics was released in 1992. It was at that time she announced another concert tour. Unfortunately, the tour had to be scrapped due to Olivia's first cancer diagnosis. Young adult me was shocked by the news and wondered how she was faring with her cancer battle. She remained quiet about her struggles with chemotherapy, surgeries and other aspects of her journey until right around the time the Gaia album was released in 1994. Television interviews, magazine articles and the album's extensive liner notes gave me a lot of perspective on how she'd been coping during the two years she was "away". 

I was so impressed with her images of the "liquid gold" chemo fluid coursing through her veins, trying to help her well become well again; her views on how meditation helped her find peace in all of the chaos; how the earth was full of healing plants and substances and that we were effectively making the earth sick by cutting down the rain forests, which were full of potentially wonderful alternative wellness options. Her positive attitude and how she decided that she would ultimately control the narrative of her journey inspired me. So, not only was I a fan of her music, but I became a fan of her fortitude and gratitude for all things. Being in my mid-to-late twenties at this point, I was grateful to learn something new from someone I had long admired. 

For me, cancer was never an "if", but more of a "when" as both sides of my family have struggled with a variety of cancers. Knowing this, I took Olivia's actions and words to heart and thought, when the day arrives that I have cancer, I know what I need to do for myself and those around me. When I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, it didn't really come as much of a surprise to me. I think the only surprise was that the cancer couldn't not be linked to any genetic reasons like the various cancers my relatives had fought. 

Olivia's cancer returned a few more times since 2000 and she continued to add words of strength, hope and inspiration to my vocabulary. One exceptionally important term was: "cancer thriver". We are not merely surviving... we are thriving and making the most out of our lives despite cancer. As corny as it sounds, I really look up to Olivia for all she has unknowingly done for me over the years. She informs the way I respond to every setback or difficult day that I might be having. She is a hero to me beyond the music. 

As Olivia once sang and as she routinely says to her fellow cancer thrivers: DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'!