It was a rare occurrence. I was home by myself on a Friday night with nothing to do. I had been working a shift shadowing a chef in a restaurant kitchen. Because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be there for, I purposely left my evening wide open. I also figured, it had been a long week and a long day, I’d be too tired to do anything.
By the time I got home, I was exhausted (and badly needed a shower!) I settled in for a glass of wine and happened to catch the movie “Family Stone” on TV. This was a movie I had actually really wanted to see, but my friend Tarlan had once told me “Maybe you shouldn’t see that movie.” Now I know why. It’s a touching movie…and there are lots of story lines, but the one that spoke to me? The matriarch in the family was battling cancer. Let’s just saw the movie spoke to me in a lot of ways. About 10 min into the movie? The tears started.
After completely bawling through the entire movie, I was beginning to feel pretty sad. Rather than turning off the TV, and reading or doing something productive, I decided to turn the channel. Bad idea. It was the Stand Up to Cancer telethon. On every major channel. There was no way of getting away from it. As I saw the photos and heard the stories, the tears kept coming. How is it that we haven’t found a cure? What made us decide that it was more important to put a man on the moon than to cure cancer? Why do we spend money fighting wars a half a world away when there’s a battle right here in our own backyards? How is it that cancer has affected so many people and yet we’re only making slow process? How come we didn’t find a cure in time to help my mom?
Have you or a loved one been affected? What are you doing to cure cancer?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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So well said. Couldn't have been easy but sounds cathartic. I'm sending you a big hug.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head though. It's time for Americans to wake up and start taking a long hard look in the mirror. Because too much is going wrong: too much that is unacceptable any longer.
We have our priorities completely out of order. We step in constantly as the world's policeman and we serve as the world's caretaker when our own citizens at home are suffering. We tackle the world's problems but shield ourselves in a cloak of denial about the problems in our own backyard.
We need to Stand Up to Cancer. And we need to Stand Up for America. It's time to fix what's broken one cure at a time.
So well said. Couldn't have been easy but sounds cathartic. I'm sending you a big hug.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head though. It's time for Americans to wake up and start taking a long hard look in the mirror. Because too much is going wrong: too much that is unacceptable any longer.
We have our priorities completely out of order. We step in constantly as the world's policeman and we serve as the world's caretaker when our own citizens at home are suffering. We tackle the world's problems but shield ourselves in a cloak of denial about the problems in our own backyard.
We need to Stand Up to Cancer. And we need to Stand Up for America. It's time to fix what's broken one cure at a time.