You're right, Kendall. The prayers and good thoughts and wishes don't change anything. You still have cancer, you still have to deal with the damage, and it still stinks, completely.

All the prayers and the good thoughts and the best wishes do is tell you that you don't have to go through any of this alone. They tell you that as much as we all love your singing and storytelling, that isn't why we love you. (In some cases, actually, it's the leather jacket, but I for one like you as a person.) They won't take away a single ounce of suffering, but they can let you know that the suffering isn't all there is, and there are those among us who will walk with you - Jacqui most of all, but she is not the only one.

It's bad news, yes, and I'd be thoroughly pissed if I were you - at life, at God, at the universe, at my body, at whatever and whomever I could find to be pissed at. You've earned the right.

But on the other side of despair and anger is love - and you are deeply loved by more people than you know.

You don't need to get there today, or even soon. It's all right. Our love and friendship will be wait for you.

Dan