Understanding Them

     One of the scariest thing that could happen to me is to have cancer. Not just because of the pain I could be going through therapies or the incurability of the disease but also because of the sadness and depression that my loved ones and I could feel. Whenever I see cancer patients, I can feel from them the fear of dying and being left alone. I would never want to have cancer.

     I cannot distinctively describe what cancer patients could feel because I wouldn’t know and I believe that non-cancer patients could never relate as much as those who had experienced cancer.

     The podcast, “The Rhetoric of Cancer,” is a very good instrument for people like me to at least know the language of cancer patients. Through listening, the line that strike me was, “If I battle my cancer I’m putting myself in conflict against myself ……… to have embraced it [cancer] like a family member.” It strikes me because in that line I could at least relate to what cancer patients could feel. Isn’t it scary seeing yourself and battling with it. In the case of cancer patients, they are battling with cancer, which is a part of them – inside their bodies, and that means that they are fighting in what inside them. It seems that battling with oneself would be easy since that person would know what would be the weakness of himself but, the problem if he defeats the other means, he also loses. And here comes St. Francis of Assisi saying that cancer could be embraced like a family member. One could think that the statement could mean surrendering but in my opinion, embracing cancer is a good way to battle with it. Befriending your enemy – cancer – is a good way to lessen the depression and sadness of cancer patients could be feeling. What could one do when he knows that there is nothing that could cure his disease? So why not live your life to the fullest when you still have time. So I believe that St. Francis of Assisi is right. But that doesn’t mean doing nothing and letting yourself die, but rather, making use of your time efficiently.

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Nikka Marie Sales