Nothing is more certain than death — so why does the approach of death always surprise me?
People die of cancer every day. The disease is so common that most of us don’t even think much about it. I certainly don’t. Even though I had breast cancer more than 10 years ago, I still don’t think about getting cancer and dying from it. And I don’t think about it happening to my friends.
I have a friend who had a routine cancer screening — a lung scan — about a year ago. He was a smoker, so it was supposed to give an early warning if there was anything wrong.
The scan showed what could be a couple of small tumors on his lung. After a biopsy confirmed it was cancer, those two small nodules were removed through surgery. Then he went through months of chemotherapy. And now he’s had another scan to see whether it worked.
He found out this evening that the cancer has metastasized — to his lymph nodes and his liver. And now that I fear death might be coming for him, I don’t know what to feel. In the end, nobody cheats death.
Sometimes you’re not ready for a challenge, but you do it anyway
What if ‘fixing’ a mental condition changes the person you are?
I don’t know how to be popular, and that hurts in a social world
Romantic love is part obsession, part reality — and part madness
Aren’t libertarians the logical folks? So why are so many irrational now?
Get rid of celebrities and politicians; this is the kind of news I still want
Openly gay people in U.S. military? So what? I have no objections
I’ve lost all interest in begging anyone to fix the political system