Christina Applegate Battling Breast Cancer

A woman.

 

Nope, just a girl.

 

With that attitude, I guess so.

 

You do know that's a line from Anchorman, right?

 

Anchorperson.

 

You are a smelly pirate hooker.

 

solid.

 

Ya, and the millions of people who have died of cancer just weren't that courageous...

 

I really doubt that's what he meant.

 

Really? Because he said that survivors are survivors because they reach down for that extra supply of courage. The inverse of this statement is that dead cancer patients are dead because they didn't reach down for that extra supply of courage. But since you know intuitively what he was actually saying, enlighten me.

 

You DO know that Forever Town is a cancer survivor, right?

 

And for that I congraulate him. Still doesn't change my viewpoint. I simply hate to see a language of win/loss transferred to medicine; I don't like to hear terms like "battle" and "win" and "lose" when it involves something so horribly destructive. It's not sports. I spent many summers at a youth camp for kids with various diseases, including HIV/AIDS, sickle cell and every form of cancer---many of whom died. To me, they didn't lose. They wanted to live just as badly as the rest of us. And I don't think they died merely because they didn't reach down deep enough. Any person who continues to live with dignity with cancer---no matter for how long---is a courageous individual. That's why I don't like the framework of win/lose. We make it seem as if a cancer survivor is somehow more valuable than a cancer fatality with terms like "extra reserve of courage." I admire FT's ability to handle cancer with resolve and dignity and strength, but not because he survived it.