In Pearlspective

Dear Friend, I love you. I need you to believe that. It's hard to know what love looks like any more so I need you to trust my love no matter what you hear. I also need you to tell me if  I can love you better. I love you but I'm not a mind reader and I'm not perfect - nobody is. Part of loving you means I care about your health. This virus going around right now - I don't want you to get it and I definitely don't want to give it to you! That's why I don't spend time with you when I'm sick. I love you but I'd rather miss you than make you sick. I guess a lot of folks can be contagious without being sick. After all, I never hung out with someone who was puking their guts out before I got the flu. I suppose that's true of any virus. But what can I do about that? Should I never see you again, even when I feel healthy, just in case I might have something contagious? Perpetual consensual loneliness isn't love, it's trauma. I can't do...

I've never really told this story before, but I think it's time... As an entertainer, I've seen music touch many people, some who don't understand the language being sung, and I've even seen deaf people respond to the joy of music! But music touched me - physically , not just emotionally - long before I started sharing it with others. Yeah, I know. "Physically?? What does that even mean?" Well, it's like this: The harmonica changed my life - maybe even saved it. But I never wanted to play it or asked Santa to bring me one. In fact, about the time I started playing harmonica, it was maybe the last thing on my mind. Why? Because as an 8 year old kid, for no officially diagnosed reason, I had gone from outrunning teenage boys to being so weak that I couldn't walk, stand, or even sit up. I couldn't do much of anything, and honestly, I didn't even care anymore. I was giving up. One day my mom came home from the store, said "look ...