trudy, jeff and the gang

In 2003 Trudy was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the same year her son was in a major motorcycle accident, her eldest daughter found out she had a life threatening brain tumor, and her youngest daughter was inflicted with a mysterious kidney infection. When we met her last week and introduced her to The Buried Life, she had much to say.

one hug everyday

Trudy and her husband Jeff have so much love for each other that when you meet them, you can’t help but grin. After everything they’ve been through, they’ve learned that the best things in life are simple. Hot coffee, the sunrise, fat snowy mountains, tall green grass.. the little things that give you shivers when you find a moment to really enjoy them - those are what make life great. They opened their home to us and offered Halloween candies and advice on life, love and football. She told us that giving up was “not in my vocabulary” and we believed her.

Trudy is fighting stage four ovarian cancer and is being treated at the Cancer Treatment Center in Oklahoma. She has eight more scheduled chemotherapy treatments. Three trips are covered by air mile donations at this point.  Her family is fighting to pay for the rest of her treatment flights to Oklahoma, so if anyone out there may be able to lend a hand (air miles, donations or a plane), please let us know.

We want to thank Trudy and Jeff for inviting us into their home, sharing their story and teaching us that determination and love can move mountains.
Here’s a quote Trudy passed on to us…something that helped her while she was in the hospital..

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words
Keep you words positive because your words become your actions
Keep you actions positive because your actions become your habits
Keep you habits positive because your habits become your values
Keep you values positive because your values become your destiny!”
Dr. Peter Johnson

Stay in touch Trudy, we’ll be back soon.

TBL

Friends - we apologize for being M.I.A. for the past 4 days, however it has been difficult to get a hold of the web without our trusty computers. A few days ago, while we were throwing fish at the famous Pikes Fish Market in Seattle, some young whipper-snappers robbed us. FORTUNATELY, they did not steal any of our tapes and priceless footage we have collected over the past 2 months (thank-you whipper-snappers!)… they did, however, yank all of our computers, ipods, a camera, some sound equipment and some other junk.

dunc and ben get the news

We promise not to hold this against Seattle - in fact, other than this hiccup, Seattle has been one of our favorite stops….we simply ask that the young whipper-snappers send back Ben’s music on his computer because there’s some really great stuff from Europe that they just don’t deserve to listen to.

Sticks and Stones…. The Tour Continues! -TBL

I have never been so proud to be Canadian in my whole life! Last night, with 20,000 supportive Vancouverites, we sang ‘O Canada’ (our national anthem) at the top of our lungs and brought the house down at the Suns vs. Sonics game. We are not good singers by any means, but with the help of a packed stadium we officially knocked #35 off the list!! The one and only Mr. Steve Nash (our hometown hero) stood behind us and sang/chuckled through it all. We owe a big thanks to Canucks anthem veteran Mark Donnelly for stopping in before the game and giving us a crash course in tone/pitch/pace/volume/singing. Thanks Mark!

A two hour hold-up at customs meant we couldn’t make it to the anti-war protest in Seattle this morning, but we look forward to finding another opportunity to fight the man soon.

Sent via Palm Centro

We just got word that Tom Shoes just won the prestigious People’s National Design Award presented by Isaac Mizirahi in New York City. Way to go Toms!

The Buried Life toured the Toms headquarters last month and we were in awe of what this company is doing. For every shoe they sell, they match and give one shoe to a kid somewhere in the world that doesn’t have shoes. The owner, Blake Mycoksie came up with the idea 2 years ago when traveling around South America seeing how many kids were barefoot. His travels made him realize he wanted to start a company where for every item he sold, he gave back something simple to help make the world a better place. In just 18 months Toms Shoes has become a company to watch and a trend we hope every company thinks about in the future.

Watch the video for all details of the company and to see Blake win this award.

Just received this touching note from Jesse’s mom, it’s written for Mark Morrison, who we met in San Francisco:

Hey Mark,

So sorry to hear your story. My son jesse james met these wonderful guys a couple of years back, they made his day like they seem to have done for you. When Jesse’s cancer came back, the docs gave him a few weeks to a couple of months to live. He made it over two years before he died on September 25th.

Jesse did not accept this news from the docs, he went out everyday, as if it was his last, determined to live his life to the utmost. Those dates they set are timelines that are based on stats. Because we ask for them. Don’t you believe that. Set goals for yourself, and work towards them. When you achieve them, set more. Don’t ever give up, don’t ever lose sight of your dreams. Dream for today, dream for tomorrow, and dream for what can you become if given the opportunity in your next existence.

Keep it simple. Throughout life we hope for things, and we have faith that we will receive what we hope for. That is our promise. I will think of you, and send strength through the universe.

jesse’s mom, devorah

Sent via Palm Centro

I’m blogging from my Centro in a Cafe in Seattle and have to re-report just how freakin excited we are for #43 this friday!! We’ve been working on this for sooo long it makes my head spin. Now, after Dave’s breakdance-magic at the Sonic’s game last week we will be heading up to the Suns vs. Sonics match in Vancouver to complete “Sing the National Anthem to a Packed Stadium”

I’ll be taking pics with my phone and posting from the event!”

I’m curious to know though, on a scale of 1 to 10, what you guys out there would estimate our singing ability is.. feel free to comment below

Sent via Palm Centro

Ok so Dave didn’t exactly dance for the Sonics, but he did saunter into an ridiculous situation by accident. It went down like this: we managed to get some tickets to the Sonics game in Seattle and there we were amidst thousands of screaming b-ball fans pulling the Carlton (the white guy dance from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). Anyways we ended up on the Jumbotron. This led to the mascot grabbing Dave (he was on the aisle) and taking him down to center court at the end of the third quarter.

Dave kicked the white guy styles doing the worst dance ever until he got on the court. Then without warning he pulled a gainer backflip and started busting out in his bboy styles. The best part is at the end when he walked off the floor, Steve Francis (the franchise) yelled ‘thatta boy Lingwoooood’.

With our camera crew in tow capturing it all, Duncan decided to jump in the team huddle during a timeout. The GM and the coach saw it all and our camera guys got tossed, but in the process we laid out our story to the organizers. They eventually told us the Sonics were playing their next game in Vancouver against the Suns (Nash baby!!) and so we asked them if we could sing the national anthem at the game (#43 ) . They called us back a day later and said, to our disbelief, yes. We can’t believe it but they agreed! We are going to be singing the Canadian national anthem in Vancouver on Friday, October 26!

Sent via Palm Centro

We met Mark through a woman we began talking with one night on the streets of Sausalito, CA. She told us, “You should talk with my friend Mark, he is going to die soon.” She explained that her friend Mark had recently been dealt a horrible blow - He had just been informed by his doctor that his lung cancer had spread to his lymph nodes and that he had 3-6 months to live.

That night we visited Mark at his dark apartment where he was laying on an inflatable mattress on the floor. We sat down on the floor and talked with Mark for 3 hrs and learned a little about his past 49 yrs… where he had grown up, what he was proud of, what he wasn’t proud of, why his music was important and why his family was obsolete…then we talked about what it was like to know you were going to die in 3-6 months.

He told us that the nights are the hardest. He said that when it gets dark, his mind starts racing and it is the most terrifying thing he has ever experienced. He said he refuses to die in a hospital bed.

We left that night struggling to put ourselves in Mark’s shoes, trying to imagine what it would be like to know you had 90-120 days left in your life.

The next day, we visited the local Sausalito Presbyterian Church and were lucky enough to speak to the congregation. We talked about our new friend Mark…we described his situation, explained that he didn’t have the support of his family and that we were working to brighten up his nights and find him a bed that he didn’t have to struggle to get out of.  After we spoke, we were swarmed with smiles and a multitude of offers to help.

That night we showed up at Mark’s apartment with some pizza, beer, a guitar, a king sized bed, 8 paintings, 2 lamps, 5 plants and a pack of glow-in-the-dark stars for the ceiling above his bed. We spent the evening setting up Marks new bed (which we made from 2 bunk beds donated by someone at the Church) and did some redecorating.

Mark said that no one had ever done anything like this for him before in his life, not even his family, so we told him we were family.

We played some music, drank some beer and left town the next day hoping that Mark might sleep a little bit easier knowing some friends are with him.

Thank you Reverend Burko, ShanMarie and all the kind people at the Sausalito Presbyterian Church who pitched in to help us gather these things for Mark.

Ben