One of the pitfalls of writing about illness is that it is very easy to imagine people with cancer as either these wise, beyond-their-years creatures or else these sad-eyed, tragic people. And the truth is people living with cancer are very much like people who are not living with cancer.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the commonality of human experience, emphasizing that those with illness are still fundamentally human.
John Green's quote addresses the oftentimes oversimplified narratives surrounding individuals with cancer, suggesting that they are either portrayed as tragically afflicted or overly wise. In reality, these individuals possess the same range of human experiences and emotions as anyone else, which reminds us of the importance of viewing people with illness as complete individuals rather than merely their diagnosis.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one might reference this quote to humanize the experience of illness.
Always' was a promise! How can you just break the promise?" "Sometimes people don't always understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don't you believe in true love?" I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. But I thought that if true love did exist, that was a pretty good definition of it.
Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won’t be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because—like all real love stories—it will die with us, as it should.
I find it really offensive when people say that the emotional experiences of teenagers are less real or less important than those of adults. I am an adult, and I used to be a teenager, and so I can tell you with some authority that my feelings then were as real as my feelings are now.
I don't think pandemics make us afraid of death, I think they make us afraid of oblivion. They force us to grapple with the futility of effort. Also they make us barf which isn't fun either... Wash your hands, cover your coughs, and find a way to hold in balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle.
So often we try to make other people feel better by minimizing their pain, by telling them that it will get better (which it will) or that there are worse things in the world (which there are). But that's not what I actually needed. What I actually needed was for someone to tell me that it hurt because it mattered. I have found this very useful to think about over the years, and I find that it is a lot easier and more bearable to be sad when you aren't constantly berating yourself for being sad.
We kiss. Her hands are freezing on my face, and she tastes like coffee and the smell of the onion is still stuck in my nose, and my lips are all dry from the endless winter. And it's awesome.
In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.
According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.
It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song.
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.
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