Music copyright © 1990 by Tony Arata
Words 1997 by Jim Bearden

When I started working at the Hematology Unit of Abbott Laboratories Diagnostic Division, in early 1993, they were well into the development of the biggest hematology analyzer project that they had undertaken, the CD-4000 (abbreviated to “CD4K”). After several more years, during which we all worked pretty hard at getting it as “right” as possible, it was successfully released. Somewhat later, the manager who had led the whole effort, Vern Chupp, retired, and for his retirement party, I thought the music and the thoughts in Garth Brooks’ The Dance would make a good starting point for a song commemorating our common effort.

Verse 1:
Looking back on the years we’ve shared,
On this project here, and the things we’ve dared —
There were moments we knew we’d got it right.
How could we have known that you’d ever say goodbye?

Chorus:
And now I’m glad we didn’t know
How the lyses wouldn’t lyse, and the flow scripts wouldn’t flow.
Our lives are better off today —
We could have missed the pain, but we’d have had to miss the CD4K.

Verse 2:
Red to blue: that changed everything;
At times, the plots we saw just left us wondering.
And if we’d only known all those Lynx pitfalls,
Well, who’s to say? You know, we might have changed it all.

Chorus

End:
Yes, our lives are better off today —
We could have missed the pain, but we’d have had to miss the CD4K.

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