Recently I attended an event where I ran into someone I had not seen in years. She asked me how I "was doing" and how my “little boy was doing." I said we are doing well. When I asked how her family was doing, she said with relief, “healthy.”
Healthy is not bragging rights. Healthy is not #blessed. Why? Because many times, especially with cancer and conditions you are born with, there is nothing you can do to change it.
First, what causes cancer? Mutations cause cancer. And mutations happen every day to all of us and don’t cause any problems. However, some errors, simply through bad luck, can affect one gene instead of another. This is what causes two-thirds of cancer. The other one-third is made up of environmental and/or inherited genes. We can’t control what we inherit. So many people will develop cancer no matter how healthy they behave.
"It's not your fault," says one researcher. "Nothing you did or didn't do was responsible for your illness." People should certainly not feel guilty about getting the disease. In most cases, there is nothing they could have done to avoid it.
Healthy is not bragging rights. Healthy is not #blessed. Why? Because many times, especially with cancer and conditions you are born with, there is nothing you can do to change it.
First, what causes cancer? Mutations cause cancer. And mutations happen every day to all of us and don’t cause any problems. However, some errors, simply through bad luck, can affect one gene instead of another. This is what causes two-thirds of cancer. The other one-third is made up of environmental and/or inherited genes. We can’t control what we inherit. So many people will develop cancer no matter how healthy they behave.
"It's not your fault," says one researcher. "Nothing you did or didn't do was responsible for your illness." People should certainly not feel guilty about getting the disease. In most cases, there is nothing they could have done to avoid it.
Adversely, if you don’t get cancer, it’s not something you should tote as bragging rights—because it’s just dumb luck most of the time.
I am thrilled for a person I know who is expecting a baby. She said (a phrase I’m sure I've even said myself in the past), “We don’t care if it’s a girl or boy just as long as he/she is healthy...” Ouch. As the mother of a child who has had health challenges and two children without health challenges, I can say that you love them the same if not more.
If you feel like saying “healthy” replace it with “happy,” because we are all in control of that status.
I am thrilled for a person I know who is expecting a baby. She said (a phrase I’m sure I've even said myself in the past), “We don’t care if it’s a girl or boy just as long as he/she is healthy...” Ouch. As the mother of a child who has had health challenges and two children without health challenges, I can say that you love them the same if not more.
If you feel like saying “healthy” replace it with “happy,” because we are all in control of that status.