A Strange Blessing
"...a life-threatening disease like cancer is
a strange blessing that casts our life and purpose in sharp relief," wrote Hamilton
Jordan in No Such Thing as a Bad Day. "Some cancer patients allow cancer to
dominate and define their lives. They cut themselves off from their families and friends,
throw in the towel emotionally, expect the worst, and fulfill that expectation. But there
are many, many more who use their illness to find new meaning in their lives. And these
are the patients who beat cancer against all odds or greatly exceed their prognosis or
medical expectation."
From his own
experience, and from his research, Jordan developed the
strong belief that responses to the words "You have cancer"
– emotional, intellectual, and physical – have a lot to do
with survival and with quality of life. This is not to
suggest that the immediate reaction will be "positive
thinking." After surviving three different kinds of cancer,
he challenged himself to never forget his own "raw fear,"
because he wanted to hold onto the sense of purpose that
cancer brought to him, "the ironic blessing."
"I know many strong and intelligent
people," he observed, "who are so devastated by their diagnosis of cancer they are paralyzed with fear, fail to take charge of their lives and medical options, and
do not take advantage of their greatest resources:
-
the ability to be an active partner in the
medical decisions that will determine whether they will live or die, and
-
the will to live, which now has been
demonstrated scientifically to have an impact on the course of disease generally and
cancer specifically."
Note: Jordon died
on May 20, 2008, aged 63, from peritoneal mesothelioma.
Earlier in his life he had survived non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
melanoma, and prostate cancer.
