Cancer is a growth hormone for empathy, and empathy makes us useful to each other in ways we were not, could not have been, before.
Interpretation
Cancer can enhance our capacity for empathy, enabling us to support one another more effectively than before.
In this quote, Kelly Corrigan suggests that the experience of dealing with cancer can foster a deeper sense of empathy among individuals. This newfound empathy not only helps those suffering from cancer feel less isolated but also cultivates stronger connections and support networks that were previously absent, illustrating the transformative power of shared suffering and compassion.
In practice
During a speech at a cancer awareness event.
We'll bury our mothers and fathers - shuttling our children off for sleepovers, jumping on red-eyes, telling eachother stories that hurt to hear, about gasping, agonal breaths, hospice nurses, scars and bruises and scabs, and how skin papers shortly after a person passes. We will nod in agreement that it is as much an honor to witness a person leave this world as it is to watch a person come into it.
Treat your body like a temple, not a woodshed. The mind and body work together. Your body needs to be a good support system for the mind and spirit. If you take good care of it, your body can take you wherever you want to go, with the power and strength and energy and vitality you will need to get there.
In my 20s I was in constant pain from undiagnosed endometriosis. With no prospect of a cure, I decided I needed a career - writing - that could accommodate being ill.
Water is the medicine for indigestion; it is invigorating when the food that is eaten is well digested; it is like nectar when drunk in the middle of a dinner; and it is like poison when taken at the end of a meal.
They don't actually see the real world, where 95% of the people with HIV are not treated and are dying. And even though we have some blue sky now in our country, the sky could become cloudy again very soon.
The aim of medicine is to prevent disease and prolong life, the ideal of medicine is to eliminate the need of a physician.
I have mothers with small children come to me and say, 'You found that I had early breast cancer - because of you, I don't have cancer.' You've just prevented that person from dying early, and to prevent an early, unnecessary death is incredibly meaningful.
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