listen to those who speak with death every day. I’m reading Leroy Sievers’ My Cancer blog, which is hosted on the NPR website. Sievers was interviewed on Morning Edition this morning (“Leroy Sievers’ Cancer Conversations“) and he’ll be the subject of a documentary with Ted Koppel airing Sunday on the Discovery channel (“Living with Cancer“). The documentary was supposed to air after Sievers died, but he’s still here — after a 4-5-year remission from colorectal cancer, and after having his brain tumors blasted away with radiation this past January.
On Morning Edition, people who have posted to Sievers’ blog read some of their entries. One ballet teacher/dancer talked about looking in the mirror on Valentine’s Day and seeing an alien: no hair on her head, no eyelashes or eyebrows, no breasts, lots of scars. She then talked about getting into bed that night and her husband telling her how beautiful she was.
Sievers’ blog post today talks about “What if?” What if he didn’t have the cancer? Several people with cancer who commented on today’s post say they don’t ask “What if?” but they do ask “What now?” Living in the moment, learning how to inhabit that now with love and compassion.
I’m going back to reading the blog and the comments.
Posted by sdshattuck 
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