In the late 90s my mom received a diagnosis many get. She had breast cancer. For years cancer had been a bully in her family. Several, including her mother, father, and baby brother, had died to the disease. Now, it was poking its finger in her chest.
After many rounds of chemo and radiation her cancer went into remission, but she continues to fight it by taking part in the annual Relay for Life event raising funding for cancer research.
You see events such as Relay for Life going on a lot from early spring through the summer for a reason – seemingly everyone knows someone close to them who has been hit by cancer. It's a scourge that chooses without prejudice. It appears with little warning, and can show no mercy even on its most helpless victims.
Cancer is bad, and I doubt anyone would argue with that statement. But, I see something else from these events. Communities that may have fractures among race or socioeconomic status bond over a common enemy. People find ways to give and raise support for a cure. Stories of survival are re-told by the subjects; those who succumbed are honored for their fight.
What cancer can do for us, as well as any other event that forces us to face mortality, is make us look at ourselves. We question who we are, if we're who we thought we'd be by now, and what can we do to become what we ought. It makes us check our lives and paths, and make corrections where needed.
