There’s nothing good about cancer
Our great friend and Grove Projector Betsy Ervin, the Christopher Hitchens of cancer, writing an absolutely powerful, sacred-cow-tipping piece in the Star News opinion pages a couple of days ago:
Everyone diagnosed with cancer deserves to experience the disease in his or her own way. Some choose to be upbeat, refusing even to entertain the possibility of negative outcomes. They may go so far as to describe cancer as a positive change, one that should be embraced and for which we might feel a sort of gratitude.
Many people find comfort in such sentiments, but I can’t help but be impatient with them…
Stars News: There’s nothing good about cancer
[…] There’s nothing good about cancer By editor Everyone diagnosed with cancer deserves to experience the disease in his or her own way. Some choose to be upbeat, refusing even to entertain the possibility of negative outcomes. They may go so far as to describe cancer as a positive … The Grove Project - http://www.groveproject.org […]
Link to WSN opinion piece is broken today — and the search on that site isn’t working either, at the moment. Will update link if necesssary as soon as I can. -ed.
Powerful stuff, and painfully honest. When my brother died of cancer nearly two years ago, it was the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever experienced. While he deteriorated for two years 3,000 miles away, his email updates reduced me to tears in front of co-workers who were mostly oblivious to my family’s ordeal. Even writing this brings back memories still raw to contemplate. There’s nothing good about cancer, but Betsy hits the nail on the head right here:
“Until we put our faith and funds into the necessary but unprofitable work of prevention, incidences of apparently “random” cancers will continue to rise.”
Updated link to the Star News piece, which was moving around a little bit -ed.