Manhattan Tales: Historical Reminiscence
I am writing this column on Friday, November 22, as I try to distract myself from a bunch of medical procedures scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving: a bone marrow biopsy (ouch!), a skeletal scan, and a host of tests in preparation for enrollment in a clinical trial.
This clinical trial (my second) has prompted me to learn yet another new biological term – “kinesin spindle protein” (KSP). KSP, I have learned, is involved in the division of cells, and in particular in the division of multiple myeloma cells. The drug that is being tested in the clinical trial inhibits KSP from forming. The biochemistry of the drug is far beyond my ability to comprehend, but I am hopeful (and not too fearful of the side effects).
This week marks two major events in American history. I have spent many hours in the last few months reading up on them and watching movies and videos on the Internet about them.
First, November 19 marked the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
When I was young, I read the text of the Gettysburg Address at least a dozen times at the Lincoln Memorial, which was a few miles from my childhood home in Washington, D.C. and to which my family frequently took out-of-town visitors. The words are carved in giant letters on the interior wall of the Memorial, just to the left of the giant statue of Lincoln.
This year I tried to memorize the Address. It’s only 270 words long, but I consistently stumble over the last two sentences, which probably contain half of the whole text. They are quite beautiful:
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us … – that we here highly resolve that these dead have not died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
I jokingly blame my memory lapses (like my baldness) on my four years of chemotherapy. Of course both are just as likely to have been caused by old age. But the chemotherapy is a less embarrassing target.
I don’t think I will have enough nerve to try and recite the Address at Thanksgiving dinner in Washington, though it would indeed be, in Lincoln’s expression, “fitting and proper.” For Lincoln was the first president to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving in 1863. If I do try and recite it, I will definitely provide a copy to my wife to give me prompts, especially for those last two sentences.
The other major historical anniversary this past week is John F. Kennedy’s assassination, which occurred 50 years ago on Friday, November 22 -- the day I started writing this column.
Like virtually every American who is old enough to remember that event, I have a vivid memory of where I was when I learned of the shooting: I was emerging from a math exam in 11th grade. I also have clear memories of sadly watching the Kennedy funeral on television the following Monday. Those were a cataclysmic and dreadful four days.
Since I was brought up in Washington, D.C., national politics, presidential inaugurations, and the Kennedy funeral had a special immediacy. I remember going with my family to watch Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1957. Kennedy’s inaugural I watched on our small black and white television. I particularly remember Robert Frost, who was in his late 80’s, having great difficulty in reading a poem on that bright, cold, and windy day.
Living in Washington brought American history to the forefront of our family life. In August 1963, I took the bus downtown and heard Martin Luther King give his famous “I have a dream” speech. I worked one summer as an intern in a senator’s office. And I clearly remember my mother taking me to Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was shot, and the house across the street where Lincoln died, and seeing the bloodstained pillow on the bed.
Though history does not appear to be marking John Kennedy as a president of Lincoln’s stature, Kennedy’s assassination intertwined him in my mind with Lincoln.
I, like many young people in the 1960’s, was inspired by Kennedy’s flowery oratory (“ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”). I wanted to work in the “public interest.” I ultimately chose to work in New York City and found a terrific job as a litigator representing New York City’s municipal government.
It does make me smile to realize that I litigated at times against ‘public interest’ lawyers who viewed city government as ill serving the public interest. But my thought was that if I could make government work a little bit better, that was a sufficient way to serve the ‘public interest.’ Certainly working for New York City gave me a tremendous amount of intellectual stimulation and personal satisfaction.
Now that I am retired, I spend most of my efforts trying to keep myself in reasonably good physical shape to deal with my chemotherapy regimens (and the challenges of old age). I kindle my intellectual fires with historical books, newspapers, and periodicals.
And of course I also get to spend energy on the joys of family life, which this year will take me back again to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in Washington.
Perhaps this Thanksgiving I will make yet another visit to the Lincoln Memorial. If so, I will re-read the Gettysburg Address, as well as Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which is carved on the right-hand wall as you face the giant stature of Lincoln. It too is one of the most beautiful and moving essays ever written.
Happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
Stephen Kramer is a multiple myeloma patient and columnist at The Myeloma Beacon. You can view a list of the columns he has written here.
If you are interested in writing a regular column for The Myeloma Beacon, please contact the Beacon team at .
Happy Thanksgiving.
Stephen,
Great column, I was a history major and also a practicing attorney until I went, in house and took up running a corporate tax department. I recently finished the Shelby Foote Civil War set, so the Gettysburg address is very real to me. I was a 6th grader and remember well the day Kennedy was shot and was motivated by his speech even at that young age. Good luck with your clinical trial it sounds very interesting and promising.
Ron
Thanks for the column and good luck in the trial. In my day job, I am a lawyer but I am also a Civil War buff and have visited Gettysburg and other Civil War sites many times. This past year, with my son who is in the Boy Scouts, we did a sleepover with his troop at Fort Mifflin, in Philadelphia. It is an intact revolutionary era fort that was used after the battle of Gettysburg to house Confederate POW's, mostly from a Texas regiment. They crammed hundreds of these men in a small area where we slept. Legend is they still haunt the fort. I like Lincoln but the historian recounted how Lincoln personally turned down clemency for many Union soldiers who were too scared to fight and were hanged at the fort for cowardice. Most were just boys. If you have ever visited Vermont, you will notice a Civil War memorial in ever hamlet and town since they proportionally had the highest casualty rate of the war and it was Vermonters who held the line at Gettysburg ensuring a Union victory. Check out the Civil War books of Vermont historian Howard Coffin. They are fantastic and focus on Vermont's role in the Civil War. Best of luck with the trial. Terry L.
'Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.'
I am Canadian, and still can really relate to this famous line from the Gettysberg Address. I guess he could have said 'all men and women are created equal', but that is still a wonderful concept. We watched the movie 'Lincoln' last year, which was nicely done and well acted. We did see the Lincoln Memorial, with its large statue of Lincoln, on a trip to Washington back in the '90s.
Not everyone had the vote back in those days, but eventually all men and women on this continent were enfranchised. in Canada, women did not have the vote until the 1920's. We have statues of the 'Famous Five' women who were instrumental in peacefully getting the vote for women. Cast in bronze, they are clustered around a small table, holding up their teacups!
For my choir pieces that I need to memorize, I write the words out on index cards, and carry them around with me, to look at in spare moments. Try memorizing backwards, i.e. from the last two lines to the first.
Best wishes on the kinesin spindle protein clinical trial. Thanks for sharing your 'journey' with us!
Great column, thank you. Best of luck with your trial, keep us posted!
Happy Thanksgiving to you. I have just been told mid november that my last 6 mths on Revlimid did not work since relapse in April. I was told that a Pomalyst-dex-cyclophosphamide was now my last option until 3 days ago. I am now being tested for a clinical trial at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital for linsitinib-Velcade-dex combo which if accepted I will be one of six Canadians on the trial. Supposedly this linsitinib has been successful on gastro tumors so I wonder who thought of "lets try it on MM people". So in essence I hope it works becos being told Pomalyst is last resort when I read about so many other drugs for this disease. Transplant is off the table becos I failed first autologous in less than 24 months, so they wont try it again. If anyone out there has tried any other combo drug treatment, I would certainly like to know what they are. Unfortunately Revlimid I was told was a very successful treatment. In my case it did not do its job ... so as Donald Trump would put it "You're fired."
Hi Gloria - Linsitinib also goes by the names ASP7487 and OSI-906. We've published a few short news updates about the drug in the past. See the related news items at this page:
http://www.myelomabeacon.com/tag/linsitinib/
As you'll see, there actually is research that suggests that linsitinib together with Velcade can be effective in myeloma cells that have developed resistance to Velcade. So the trial is more than just a "random shot in the dark."
Best of luck to you!
Thank you Beacon staff.
Gloria did you have the 25 mg Revlimid for 21 days and dexamethasone at the beginning of each 7 days? That's the regimen I am presently on for 2 months and it seems to be working. I also take curcumin on my own about 6 grams per day as there is empirical data to indicate this also kills myeloma and enhances Revlimids activity. Hope your next treatment works well
Stephen
I was finishing my grade 9 math exam when Kennedy was assassinated. His presidency and death captured the hearts of Canadians also. He was a president with vision, something not very politicians have today beyond the next few years to try to get elected again. Hope your trial drugs work for you.
Stephen,
I admire your gift with words and the way you write about American history. Thanks for such an interesting column. Good luck with the drug trial, I hope you get great results. Be strong!! From another Multiple Myeloma fighter, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.
Two of my favorite heroes are Lincoln and U.S. Grant ... two oddballs that rose from obscurity and changed the nation in that time.
One of my favorite reads is the little known history by Dale Carnegie (of How to Win Friends and Influence People fame), "Lincoln: The Unknown." He personally interviewed people of note who were still alive at the time and offered some things I never heard about Lincoln.
Thank you for yet another wonderful column. I always look forward to your columns and getting this one on Thanksgiving Day was especially nice. Good luck with your trial.
@ Eric...yes I was on 25 mg revlimid & 40 mgs Dex once a week. Thats all I was given to take. I started Revlimid April 2013 & was taken off Nov 2013 after being told on each monthly visit "You're doing fine" Unfortunately they should not have left me alone in the room with the computer wide open for me to access my file which I did & saw there that Revlimid did not work after 2 mths....I hope it works for you, considering I was told revlimid is very successful.
Now they suggested another trio of Pomalyst-dex-Cyclophosamide which 4 days later they changed again & now I am being tested for Canadian clinical trial for another trio of "linsitinib-dex-velcade" which will make me one of six Canadians on this trial. I am approaching the 2.5 yrs since diagnosis mark. I wish you well in your treatment.
Get new Myeloma Beacon articles by email.