A round of applause to Colleen Shaddox for her recent op-ed essay in the Washington Post "It's Cancer, Not a Moral Crucible". She writes about "the myth of cancer sainthood." Please go read it - especially if you have not had cancer.
My own observation: it is bewildering to be called "brave" or "strong" because my hair fell out and I didn't spontaneously combust. I did what I needed to do. I didn't like it. I cried a lot.
Sometimes the comments were of the "I don't know what I'd do" variety with a bit of a shudder attached to them. Well, of course you don't know what you'd do. I suspect that you wouldn't like it. And you'd probably cry a lot. But you wouldn't spontaneously combust. Trust me.
I'm all for having a positive attitude. Despair, hopelessness, and general crankiness are not fun, make it difficult to concentrate , and cut down on your invitations to the good parties. However, I doubt that they make cancer cells multiply - and to imply that they do puts an unfair burden on the person dealing with cancer. Sometimes cancer kills good, sweet, joyful people. Trust me.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
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4 comments:
What a great article! Thanks for the link. Colleen is a great writer had some enlightening points, but I still think you ARE brave. The same way I think a woman who unvoluntarily went through natural childbirth is brave or a woman who found the strength to leave an abusive relationship is brave.
I'm playing tag Jayne ...
You're it!
http://www.discussingbreastcancer.com/seven-random-facts-about-myself/
And I'm with you about the strong thing. But we are perceived as strong b/c others fear they'd be weak under our circumstances, so weak they might not survive.
They don't understand they'd be strong, too.
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