BC and AD

This Sunday the 14th marks the fifteenth anniversary of the surgery needed to excise a malignant brain tumor that somehow had appeared beneath my skull. I say “somehow,” because I asked my neurologist what causes such things, and he responded, “Beats me!” (I’m paraphrasing.)

For a number of reasons, I’ve come to see that day as a watershed moment in my life—another conversion experience. My life prior to 14 November 1995 is BC, “before cancer.” Subsequent to that day is AD, “after diagnosis.” (It’s the best I could do to make it fit the letters!)

The upper photo, BC, is from my surprise birthday party in December 1993. Banu is smiling, knowing that her plan to get me out of the building succeeded. She conspired with our friend Ken, who asked me to go to the grocery store with him. The lower photo is AD, from January 1996. It’s possible that I was listening to WDRE, which was the alternative rock station in Philadelphia at the time.