A raging against the dying of the light, but skewed by its pathological worldview: its unswerving focus on symptoms and utter disregard for holistic causes(environmental/nutritional/emotional/spiritual);its treatment of the body as a Petri dish; its utter commitment to a laboratory-cure and indifference to the sanctity of death and dying.
And yet I could not help but marvel at the heroics of it all. I was reminded of my reading of Scott and Amundsen's race for the South Pole ,or Detective Monk's intractable determination to find his wife's killer. But the human body is afflicted by a far worse killer than cancer. It is afflicted by a death sentence lamented by King David in Psalm 90: The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away
The cure for cancer will not do much to lengthen this sentence. If we do not die of cancer or heart disease we may die of something far worse such as Alzheimer's. We must all die of something, and cancer is, for many of us, simply one way the body bids us farewell. It seldom attacks the young (less than 1% of children) and so I wander at our refusal to accept this way of dying.
And yet I could not help but marvel at the heroics of it all. I was reminded of my reading of Scott and Amundsen's race for the South Pole ,or Detective Monk's intractable determination to find his wife's killer. But the human body is afflicted by a far worse killer than cancer. It is afflicted by a death sentence lamented by King David in Psalm 90: The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away
The cure for cancer will not do much to lengthen this sentence. If we do not die of cancer or heart disease we may die of something far worse such as Alzheimer's. We must all die of something, and cancer is, for many of us, simply one way the body bids us farewell. It seldom attacks the young (less than 1% of children) and so I wander at our refusal to accept this way of dying.