March 19, 2014

Which is preferable, to fight cancer or to live with it?: a reaction on The Rhetoric of Cancer

The ‘Rhetoric of Cancer’ shown how different cancer patients and experts define cancer. Some says it is a “battle” or a “struggle” to fight for, and an “enemy” to eradicate. Others, including the main character of the podcast Andrew Graystone, vision cancer as something that is part of life for those who experience it; that it is a part of the body, part of their human process. He further said that living with it and accepting it, cancer, is better than treating it as a battle.
These shows that language whether on what medium it may be it is always conventional, that different kinds of people interprets and see that thing in different ways depending on what and how they experienced such a thing, also depending on the level of awareness and knowledge they are taught.
Treating cancer as a part of some people’s body and to live with it is a positive attribute to oneself. This optimistically strengthens you and removes stress along your struggle because you being ignited with optimism, that this is part of the process of living, a normal struggle of life and there is nothing to fear with it. As what Graystone’s Christian theologian mentioned that being part of the process of life is to come and go, that we are meant to die at some time, and nobody is exempted to that, it’s just that there are who die earlier than the others, and so you don’t have to dread of experiencing it--the cancer. It might be the way nature or god or whoever it is wants you to end your journey in life, and end is inevitable, it is constant so there is nothing to be scared about having that disease. You have to live with it as what Graystone pointed out. Never stress out yourself by it because it,stress, might makes cancer severe. Go on with your normal way of living and when the time comes that your travel in this world is about to end then accept it. For me, why waste time on going too expensive treatments if at the end you will still die? Better live prosperously, and treasure the time left, make the best out of it so that when the time comes that you have to say goodbye you can say that you enjoyed your last moments in the world, that you never regret how you spend your last days, months, years, and moments in earth because you did things normally and never wasted it.
You might say it is so easy for me to say thereafter because I have not experienced myself having cancer, that I don’t know what it feels begging for more minutes, more days, months, years to live. My stand on that is that I am not stressing that those with cancers must not look at it as a fight, that I am for with Graystone that you have to live with it, I also acknowledge visioning cancer as a fight and struggle. In life we share moments with people, and when we leave in the world we leave grief to those loved ones we have. They are the one who will mourn and not you, they will be the one who will tear and not you. The point is that fighting to overcome or postpone cancer is more than fighting for yourself but it corresponds to fighting for your loved ones as well. To fight against it doesn’t mean literally to defeat it for the rest of time but it could also be to hinder and stretch the time left. Perhaps its more on fighting against emotional frustrations that the illness may bring more than fighting physically.
Living with doesn’t mean you need not to fight for it, you have indeed need to fight for it. Fighting isn’t not just barriered on treating the illness but also hindering it, limiting its effect on yourself maybe by eating healthy foods so that by the time when the illness is too acute, severe, and is already malignant you are already prepared and your loved ones as well. Living with it and fighting it, the cancer, must go in both ways, they must be considered in the journey of having cancer.

At the end it’s still the decision and interpretation of someone that will prevail. There are different ways as what I said earlier on defining things and so do language of cancer. You may treat it as a battle, as an enemy, or a part of normal process, it is up to you because you are the one who experiences it and not anybody else. The struggles, the pain and everything you feel are all felt by you and not by others. Deep inside there are things that only you could understand, and only you could feel that it becomes hard to explain. So whatever approach you have make it. But if you need advices and encouragements, better listen to the podcast ‘Rhetoric of Cancer’, it will help.

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