
During the past couple of days, I've been poring over pictures, emails, books, DVDs and other Thaxtonian material, getting info for the book I'm penning about the Chief. Natch, I've sent feeler emails out to get not just more info but a broader perspective of the man and his impact.
While getting my fingers ready to do a little walking through the yellowed pages of early material, I received an email from someone I didn't send a request to. From a woman named "Christine", the writing read:
"We would all feel so much better in a Thaxtonesque world. Imagine, we would all lip-sync our wars instead of fighting them; we would bring spontaniety back to our lives and finally enjoy them; if stuff happened, we could fix it and not be so grumpy; we could even come out of this recession by putting our own finger people to work for us; and we could learn to say to our troubles, SO WHAT?"
There was more (man, can you see us just "lip-syncing" wars? What a boss idea!!), but who can't dig the word?? I can just see it now:
Thaxtonesque (adj.) a quality whereby one is spontaneous, creative, optimistic, humorous, intuitive and helpful. Ex: "He helped so many smile with his boyish, Thaxtonesque approach to life."
Antonyms: Congressional, Gosselin ...

but, over the past couple of days, it's held some special significance for me:
A fantastic songwriter/drummer mate of mine, Peter Dintino, has been fighting leukemia over the past few years. About a year ago, he nearly lost his battle against that devil, but, with the skill of some dynamic doctors at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, a daughter who stuck with him every step of the way (by now, Lin ought to be a doctor herself!), a prayer-and-thought chain that stretched around the globe, and one tremendous power of belief and optimism in Peter himself, he overcame the worst and went into remission.
A few weeks ago, he ended back in the hospital, and the prognosis seemed to be cloaked in that dreaded word, "IF".
Once again, daughter Lin was there. Again, that prayer/thought chain inched its way around the globe. And, again, there was Pete the fighter -- prying the grip of that demon away from his body. Natch, the docs were all there, working feverishly (no pun intended).
Today, Pete made it home from the hospital!
Last night, before his release, we talked for about half an hour. And I'm proud to say that Peter A. Dintino -- drummer, songwriter, dad, believer, victor -- is our newest Mouser!! Had some great things to say about the boss Boss!
So, whatever you're up against, "Lean wit' it! ROCK wit' it!" And never, ever give up the fight!
Stay tuned ...