Sherman Yellen article : The Topic of Cancer

When I watched Elizabeth Edwards defend her decision to carry on in her husband's political campaign on 60 Minutes, I was certain that most people - ill or healthy - were eager to cheer her on. Not just for her but for ourselves. We are told that one out of every three of us will have cancer in the course of our lives, and everyone will experience it within their immediate family.

The publicity that Mrs. Edwards and Tony Snow have given to their cancer battles is a victory for honesty and reality regarding health and mortality. Those of us who have cancer often fight four battles, the disease itself, our own attitude towards it, the negative view of our society about serious illness, as well as the conflict between our desire for privacy and the need to deal with it in an open fashion.

About a dozen years ago I woke up from surgery in a New York hospital and I was told by my surgeon that my prostate cancer had metastasized. I could undergo various treatments and with some luck I might live a few more years. I'm still here to write this piece thanks to good medical care, the slow growing nature of my disease, and some old fashioned luck. My internist now tells me that I am more likely to die with it than of it. Each case is different, but one thing we all share, you, me, and Elizabeth Edwards, is the question of how do we deal with this challenging illness.

The C word - for all the well publicized marathon races through the park and the television specials - is still really the S word - scary. And the fear takes several forms. It is not just fear of death or fear of pain, it is fear of what will happen to the life we have left to live. Will our cancer frighten away friends and relatives, turn their love into pity, and that pity into avoidance? Having an extraordinary wife and two great sons I knew I was safe with my family, but I still had grave concerns that my disease would somehow end my working life and that I would become my illness - the worst of fates. As a playwright, I wanted to have my second act. For years I kept silent about my illness but the very notion that you can keep your cancer a secret is absurd. Friends will talk, and some man or woman you scarcely know will approach you at a wedding and ask in a funereal voice, "How are you feeling?"

So for many of us cancer is the last closet, the place where we try to hide our disease for fear of being judged as...as...as what? As unlucky, I suppose. And what can be worse in America than bad luck. There is the realistic fear of losing work in a society that is obsessed with fitness and youth and prefers to run away fast from other people's health problems. What could be more typical of Wal-Mart's America than its purported policy of only hiring "healthy" employees? We have all seen people with chronic and terminal illness work until the end, and do it magnificently. Early in my career I had collaborated with the composer Richard Rodgers on a musical during a time when he was under treatment for cancer. I watched in wonder as this frail, elderly man wrote music that transcended any illness he had. His body was fragile but the songs he created were beautiful, vibrant and strong, demonstrating that he was still Richard Rodgers, not some medical catastrophe. Since my diagnosis I have worked more than ever on projects I love, not assignments but works I created, and I have lived to see several productions of them. Best of all, I have also lived to see my first grandchild, now a toddler pressing her crayon on to a piece of paper and holding up her work for me to admire.

I believe that my cancer triggered a greater concern in me about my country. Having lost my sense of immortality I came to understand that nations too can die, and that under our pro-death president, George W. Bush, we were suffering a stupid and endless war that was killing not only the young men and women sent to fight it and huge numbers of Iraqis, but destroying our country itself. This is the administration that discourages the use of a new vaccine that can prevent cervical cancer and its attitude towards global warming and stem cell research is criminally ignorant and threatening to all of us. Although I never wrote about politics before, I began to write a blog.

In this self-absorbed time we live in Elizabeth Edwards stands as a reminder of the humanity we all share. Here is a woman who sets a remarkable example for her children and mine by showing that the way to conquer the fear of death is to live life fully and stay dedicated to one's work or mission. She reminds us of the need to care about the generations that will come after us, a real concern of our ancestors that has almost disappeared from American life. I favor John Edwards over all the other Democratic candidates (with the possible exception of Al "Will ya please stop teasing us" Gore) because Edwards with his specific universal health program and his unambiguous anti-war position plunges right into the issues without the foolish caution that has tarnished Hillary Clinton's candidacy or the vagueness that is dimming the Obama glow. Okay, so Edwards is not even a close third in the polls. When Ann Coulter began to attack him I knew that the radical right suspected that he alone looked like a winner - so, of course, she attacked his sexuality in an effort to get a smear campaign going. It was a futile effort since Edwards is so clearly a man who adores his wife in every way. Anyone could see that Ms. Coulter, a woman with an Adam's apple larger than Arnold Schwarzenegger's, is not to be trusted on matters of gender or sexual preference. Instinct tells me that Edwards alone among the viable announced candidates could win the '08 election by speaking honestly to a country that is starving for plain progressive talk. Part of his appeal is undoubtedly his remarkable wife. Her keen intelligence, her great warmth, and her extraordinary humanity show us how to face adversity and get on with the business of living. She is the true pro-life candidate. Trust me on this - the C word for Elizabeth Edwards is not cancer, it is challenge; no, better than that - it is celebration.

source:www.huffingtonpost.com