Pianist Hilton Ruiz is in a New Orleans hospital in a coma and the jazz grapevine has sent an email message telling people what has happened and asking for everyone’s prayers and healing thoughts.
“He has been in hospital five days now… that would be he went in on Friday, 19 May. He was punched hard in the face, all his face bones were broken, he collapsed, was taken in ambulance to hospital, on route he had cardiac arrest…..Hilton is in a coma, on life support in intensive care unit of a New Orleans hospital. The condition is extremely serious.”
If you are not a religious person and/or if you have never been seriously ill, a request for prayers may seem ridiculous to you. Personally, I do not subscribe to any organized religion, but I do believe that there are forces in the universe greater than us. Ten years ago, doctors told my family that I probably would not survive my cancer – I had a stage-four fast-growing carcinoma in the base of my tongue. Today I am cancer free. To what do I attribute my recovery? Any one or all of the following may have played a major role:
1. aggressive Western medical treatment (chemo and radiation)
2. visualization (as I lay in bed I would imagine little Pac-man-esque gremlins racing through my insides gobbling up cancer cells
3. love and support of family & friends
4. the American Indian medicine bag containing amulets and feathers and pretty stones lovingly made for me by Laura Lee, which hung on my bed throughout the ordeal
5. the prayer circle organized by Alice, my girlfriend in St. Louis
6. the nuns in a San Diego convent, praying for me at the request of Phil’s parents
No one knows for sure, even my doctors don’t take all the credit. What I do know is that I no longer question the power of one’s beliefs, and sending out some good thoughts just might help — it certainly can’t hurt.