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Soontaree's October Surprise

Hey Soul Mates,
I hope your Sunday was as wonder-filled as mine. I spent the day at
Wat Thai, the local Buddhist temple, volunteering for a bone marrow match drive for my dear friend Soontaree. Soontaree is duking it out with Leukemia. She was diagnosed while we were in England. In fact, the band found out right before we performed in Huddersfield.

Soontaree is Thai ('tho born in the USA) and needs a bone marrow match for a transplant. This was the third drive I've done with
Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M). It's pretty amazing to hear how the odds are stacked against people needing marrow transplants due to the lack of potential donors and the finiteness of the categorical matches. Anyway, with a group of mutual friends, family and full-timers from A3M, we've gone to events and locations searching for Soontaree's match and getting the word out about the need in general.

Of course, I signed up and did my buccal swab first time out; so pain-free. I certainly didn't mind putting a Q-tip in my mouth for her. "Sexy swabbing for Soontaree." Well, this drive was our most successful yet in terms of signing up potential matches for her and others who desperately need a marrow transplant. After several hours of work and a few trips inside the temple to pray and meditate and more jaunts to the food-vending area for Thai iced-tea, chicken skewers and sugary rotee, we had a major surprise. Soontaree and her husband Mike appeared. How surprising was this? This morning they were in Houston, Texas and none of us knew they were coming. Everyone was blown away.



Here's the gorgeous dame and yours truly from this afternoon. What a thrill to see you, Soontaree! She's making that bald thang look good! She looks like a mini-monk. And I'm sporting my too fresh "Save Soontaree" shirt. Represent! We also got an extra blessing from the real monks in the temple.

Her visit certainly helped reinforce how precious life is and how limited our time is in this life. Make the most of it and love the people you need to love... which would be as many people as you can. Hope is real. Love is real.

Gotta jet, but you all have a great week. Go forth and build that good karma, that righteous juju. And we'll see you on Thursday at the Gig!
Love, Power, Peace

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