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As a Rule, I Don’t Hate — But Every Rule has an Exception
Is it right to hate what I personified?
Having reached an age I never imagined, I’ve gained some insights more or less profound. One is that I try not to hate anyone and to reach for humor as my first weapon when I have to fight. Hating is ineffective and takes too much out of the hater, so I consider avoiding it the norm.
There’s nothing profound in the observation that we — H. sapiens — leave this world pretty much the way we came, huddled in the fetal position and completely dependent on others for everything. A few years ago, I watched my mother in law navigate hospice and now I’m watching my mother do the same.
There’s not that much navigation involved. Mostly, you just hang on for the downward ride. Cancer is something I have personified as I have watched others do. It took many close friends and relatives, but I didn’t really adopt the personification until it came for me. I’m acutely aware that the status of “cancer survivor” is tenuous.
My mother is losing her third battle with cancer. My mother in law lost the second time after being fairly certain she had won. She was reprieved by an inventive gadget called the cyber-knife that has done away with the horrible burns I remember people getting from radiation therapy at the clinic my…
