Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Early Growth Moon<\/p>\n
An odd twist in emphasis in the usually technological triumphalist (which I enjoy, even if I don’t always agree with it) Wired Magazine: a sensible article on cancer, one that illustrates modesty in the face of evolution and the dangers of metaphor.<\/p>\n
Cellular multiplication and cellular death occur over and over again in the human body from the moment of birth onward. (before birth, too? don’t know) \u00a0As cells multiply, necessary to keep replacing the cells that die, mutations creep in. \u00a0Cells have elaborate defenses against mutations that bloom into their own activity program–cancer and these work well, as the Wired article points out, most of the time.<\/p>\n
But, two factors work against the body’s defenses: \u00a0the first is the sheer number of mutations that occur in a lifetime, live long enough and one or two will sneak past the cells defenses, the second I snuck in the last part of that phrase, time. \u00a0The longer we live, that is, the more successful we are pushing back disease, certain cancers, too, the more time we have to acquire new mutations that a weakened cellular defense system cannot handle.<\/p>\n
Here’s where the Wired article goes radical. \u00a0Cancer, it says, is not a bad actor, it is, simply, the bodies on agents acting without proper restraint. \u00a0And, given the two factors mentioned in the above paragraph, it must be seen as a normal part of the aging process. \u00a0Cancer, then, is not an enemy, but friendly fire.<\/p>\n
This matters. \u00a0And here we get into the power of language and metaphor. \u00a0Remember Nixon’s War on Cancer? \u00a0Well, guess what? \u00a0Cancer won. \u00a0Yes, we’ve developed many treatments that fend off this cancerous assault or another, but in this understanding, all we’ve done is delayed, not defeated cancer.<\/p>\n
When we go to war against our body, we end up with the dire consequences of chemotherapy. \u00a0All along here, I’ve been thinking about Regina Schmidt, Bill Schmidt’s wife, who died of complication relating to cancer treatment. \u00a0She refused to see the cancer as an enemy that she needed to fight. \u00a0She did engage in a battle with her cancer.<\/p>\n
Yes, she used the tools available to slow it down, stave it off, but when the tools began to overwhelm her as well, she decided to not use them anymore. \u00a0This is not the kind of decision you make in a war; it’s the kind of decision you make in a life.<\/p>\n
And that’s exactly where the war metaphor gets us in trouble with cancer. \u00a0We feel like if we don’t battle valiantly with all the weapons deployed, never mind the battlefield, we’ve admitted defeat.<\/p>\n
No. \u00a0We admit to being human. \u00a0To having a body that cannot defend us forever. \u00a0To having cells that mostly, in fact, almost perfectly, recreate us every seven years or so with no major problems, but which eventually face odds they cannot overcome. \u00a0That’s not war; it’s time and fate.<\/p>\n
We know the dangers of metaphor, those of us have lived through the reaction to 9\/11. \u00a0Bush invoked the war metaphor and trillions of dollars, thousands of lives and a wasted international reputation later, we’re still fighting. \u00a0How much more sensible if we recognized terrorism as a mutation of the body human, not compatible with life, but not something we need to go to war against either; treating it rather as a cell treats a rogue cell, with localized defenses, something more resembling law enforcement than military engagement.<\/p>\n
Words matter; lives matter. \u00a0Let’s not waste either one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Early Growth Moon An odd twist in emphasis in the usually technological triumphalist (which I enjoy, even if I don’t always agree … Continue reading Cancer and Metaphor<\/span>