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Dear Cancer, please leave my loved ones alone. You are breaking all of our hearts. I know that death is a natural transition and that my pain is caused by my attachments… but you don’t let up and you don’t play fair. And I am not wise enough to know how to cope with all of this loss. —Pippa
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
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Contact the Canadian Cancer Society and make your donation. Get a tax receipt.
Although this is written in the context of soldiers, I think you will find it applies to people in general, and how, despite of all the things we have to carry, we can and do find the strength to keep marching forward. Sometimes it is not about wisdom but simply about surviving the journey long enough to, bit by bit, lighten the load until finally you can stand erect again…if only to pass on to others the story of the person who once walked beside you. (I hope I’m not perceived as being glib or insensitive…it is all I have to offer.)
The Things They Carried
They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags,
insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks.
They carried standard fatigues, jungle fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots.
They carried the M-16, trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-79 grenade launcher, M-14’s, CAR-15’s, Stoners, Swedish K’s, 66 mm LAWS, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence.
They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios with 25 foot whip antennas and their heavy batteries,
knives and machetes. Some carried napalm, CBU’s and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.
They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworms and leaches.
They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones – real and imagined.
They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another.
And sometimes they disguised that love: “Don’t mean nothin’!” They
carried memories for the most part, they carried themselves with poise
and a kind of dignity. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed or wanted to, but couldn’t; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said “Dear God” and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and
begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die.
They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried grief, terror longing and their reputations.
They carried the soldier’s greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor.
They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment.
They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried
the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment.
They carried the weight of the world.
And they carried each other.
Author
Tim O’Brien – 101st Airborne Division
How’s getting a tax receipt going to prevent cancer from ravaging a family?
Awesome Kim – I love that collection.
Especially since a very tiny – itsy bitsy part of the Cancer Society’s budget actually goes to research. That’s the sad part, is that it mainly goes to feed itself, wages, advertising for their awareness campaigns, etc, etc. They do offer incredible community support and valuable programs for people who are dealing with loss, and you should check them out for that.
As for donations, I would suggest it’s better to do your homework and look into other areas you can donate to – researchers who are on the edge of a break through, etc.
But just as long as you know that most of what you donate to the CCS will never make it to the hands of a scientist looking for a cure.
wish it was just as easy as that o.p., however, it isn’t. yes it does suck, and unfortunately, there is fuck all we can do to stop it from happening. sad, but true.
Cancer is horrible. To think that a few cells refuse to die and have intentions of their own should scare us. In a sense, cancer is some sort of evolutionary adaptation that got out of hand. Think of when people injure themselves, we need to heal, need to regrow skin, nails, hair, muscles… all these things need to know when to grow and when to stop. Cancer is this over zealous mechanism to keep growing, it’s on the other end of the spectrum, whereas some people just can’t heal and don’t re(grow) properly. Both are devastating, but evolution in action.
Immunology is working on it. Stay tuned.
damn it…. having never taken a single biology course, I have no sweet clue how to either retort sarcastically…. or inform medically…
perhaps I was the only one who read this initially as
“Cancer Sticks”…