I wrote recently about The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the inner strength she says she acquired from helping care for her mother during a battle with breast cancer. I ended my post with this statement: It seems a common thread -- the fact that cancer makes us all stronger in one way or another. It's one of the silver linings, I think. Cancer can be a gift. We just have to regard it as one and look hard for its hidden treasures.
Two readers have since left comments indicating I must be crazy for thinking of cancer as a gift. One reader wrote: I'm certainly glad that Elisabeth was able to take something positive away from her mother's bout with breast cancer, but I'm not sure that I can buy into the "gift" part.
Another reader had this to say: . . . By the way, Rosie (O'Donnell) lost her mother when she was only 10, to breast cancer, I'm sure she didn't find it a gift . . .
Of course Rosie doesn't think of her mother's death from cancer as a gift. It's not cancer or death that I regard as a gift. In no way do I consider my own breast cancer a gift. But there are a few treasures I've dug up along my travels with this disease. My writing career, my pursuit of a healthy diet and regular exercise, my desire to reach others struggling in life, my all-out appreciation for family and friends -- these are the gifts. Even though cancer may one day take my life, I still will have received these gifts.
Surely, each of us can find something worthwhile that flows from cancer -- like better awareness, a voice we can share, a wake-up call, something. It may not be obvious at first. It may take years to find. But some day, in some way, a gift will appear. Well, that's my opinion anyway.
1. Hi Jacki,
In a world of people who either see the glass as half full or half empty, I'm glad you're one of those who sees it overflowing! And I'm glad you're writing about it. Don't let the naysayers get you down.
I've been working daily with cancer survivors for over a decade (and I'm one of them) and I can count the ones on my hand who didn't find gifts hidden along this cancer journey. Even when someone we love dies young, if we look at that life as a complete life and remember the living part and not the dying, the gifts are evident.
Posted at 10:12PM on Jul 25th 2007 by patgmcree