Competition

Sometimes fellow travelers in cancerworld (and “friends who have never touched this land) will try and turn your cancerworld travels into a competition. They might say things like, “well you don’t have it as bad as my uncle Phil, he died of cancer.” Or “well your cancer isn’t that bad.” Or, “you don’t even need chemo?” Or, “Others have it so much worse.”

These statements are generally not helpful. Sure, there are some cancerworld residents that think to themselves when they hear such things, “wow, maybe I am lucky.”

Most people, however, would acknowledge that “cancerworld resident” and “lucky” might be mutually exclusive terms. Sure, many of us can learn amazing lessons from our time in cancerworld. Perhaps near 100% of us would have preferred to learn said lessons in another, less painful and scary, way.

Travels through cancerworld are not a competition. And, in generally comparisons are not helpful. Someone who seems perfectly capable of handling everything may end up permanently disabled as a result of treatment. Someone who has a “light case” of cancer may take longer to travel through cancerworld for reasons that no one could have predicted. Your journey is your journey.

When someone makes a statement that sounds like they are trying to turn your journey into a competition you can always reply with the simple, “interesting” and then immediately record their statement in your “stupid s8&t people say book.” (If you don’t remember that book, please go back and read the “ADVICE” note.)

And, by the way this might also be true for non cancerworld residents.