We have a thousand wishes: To be thinner, be bigger, have more money, a day off, a new phone, to date the person of your dreams. A cancer patient only has one wish: to kick cancer's ass. I know that 97% of you won't post this as your status, but my friends will be the 3% that do. In honor of someone who died, is fighting cancer, or had cancer, post this for at least one hour.
I'm touched by the sentiment it expresses. I have an objection, though, to its claim that a cancer patient only has one dream. The scariest thing about cancer isn't that it might kill me. What terrifies me the most is that my melanoma might keep me from achieving some of my dreams. So kicking cancer's ass isn't my only dream. Instead, it's the dream that I can only truly achieve through pursuing all my other dreams. That's why I made a point of climbing the tallest mountain I could find before I had Matt take this picture. Climbing mountains is my way of continuing to pursue the dreams that were threatened by my diagnosis.
Max,
ReplyDeleteMagnificent.
This comes to mind:
WHO hath desired the Sea? - the sight of salt water unbounded?
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barrelled swell before storm - grey, foamless, enormous, and growing
Stark calm on the lap of the Line - or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing?
His Sea in no showing the same - his Sea and the same 'neath each showing:
His Sea that his being fulfills?
So and no otherwise - so and no otherwise - Hill-men desire their Hills!
R. Kipling
Hi Max,
ReplyDeleteI came to your blog from Richard Rusczyk's AoPS blog, and this is the first time I have read your writing. This post is so inspirational. I have seen the Facebook status too, but your take on it is so much richer and filled with beautiful hope. I really admire your perspective and bravery and positivity, and I wish you the best in all of your pursuits!
Sincerely,
Luyi