Excellent article. Thank you. I, too, have faced cancer. I was 57 when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I have now been cancer-free for almost 20 years. I have also had double-bypass heart surgery in 2019. Both events changed me in some small ways. I recently published poetry about my cancer journey. I see the cancer as a gift. https://harleyking.substack.com/p/the-gift-of-cancer
Thanks for sharing your story, Harley. I just paid a brief, but enjoyable visit to your sight, and will soon be back for more. Love the fact that you've presented audio versions as well. It's always special to actually hear poets recite their own poems.
I agree Harley! I am where I am because of cancer...and I'm so thankful! I met a guy in a 'survivors' group (after my surgery) who told all of us that when he learned that he had cancer that wasn't treatable, was told to go home and prepare for the worse. The doctors gave him 6-9 months to live. He got a bit angry and went home and changed his life...mostly his diet. When we met, he was 11 years post that 'get ready to die' advice from his doctors!! One of the things he started to eat were raw veggie salads. He brought us a sample of one of his best dishes... RAW grated beets and carrots, sunflower seeds, raw honey and olive oil and lemon. I still enjoy this salad.
Harley...the BEETS (small ones) are just about the healthiest thing you can eat. Grate them up and enjoy with the carrots...add some raw shredded cabbage too. with some raw honey, and lemon, you'll love them. Beets are so good for the immune system. Try 'em, you'll like 'em.
ooops, timely quote from Senator Joni Ernst "Everybody dies"...
but other than that, coincidentally, in January our book club has its planning meeting & I have thought my suggestion might be 'Tuesdays with Morrie' (reading some reviews of this other book tho are just so-so)
My doctor, who specializes in serving those of us over the age of 65, avoids prescribing meds as much as possible, gives a thumbs-up to the Mediterranean diet (which I've pretty much followed for about 30 yrs) & believes your #3, exercise, is the best medicine one can practice! Good job on everything you've been doing!! WOW!! I also gave up my extra dry vodka martinis w/ extra olives several yrs ago. They were pretty yummy, but now I'll just have the olives & pretend. ;-)
mortality hasn't come too close, however, sadness has, & Carl Jung's quote fits: "The descent into the depths always seems to precede the ascent."
your subject today, imo, is much better than taking on victimhood.
Thanks, dj. Yes, "Tuesdays with Morrie" is the far superior book. Thanks for the supportive words about my progress (interesting about our shared past love for vodka martinis). I appreciate your keeping in touch.
Wow dj....you sound like someone I'd like to add to my 'friend' list!! Tuesdays with Morrie' is one of my favorites and sits here on my bookshelves along with another Albom book. "5 people you meet in heaven". I'm not a drinker but I was hooked on potato chips... I have changed my eating habits greatly and even stopped taking some meds...4 months on, no ill effects...getting my blood work done every 3 months and it's all good so far. I think doctors, globally, give out pills like candy at Halloween. People tend to take the easy (and maybe fatal route) to getting well... I think we ought to make changes because 'you are what you eat'...Not always, but often. We need to be part of the cure...not a lab specimen... Thanks. A good newsletter again Dr. M...
Thanks, Arlene, I'm a potato chip lover as well, but I now view them as an occasional treat rather than regular fare. I actually enjoy them more in small portions because I take smaller bites and more time to savor their deliciousness!
Non smoking throat cancer (HPV) was defeated by surgery and radiation 7 years ago. The experience led to the early detection of a non smoking lung cancer defeated with surgery (removal of my upper left lobe) 5 years ago. Both were sobering and ultimately uplifting. I have always been a grateful person but these experiences elevated my GRATITUDE to a new and extremely high level. I have chosen to be a BRIGHT LIGHT in the world. My experience pales in comparison to the impact of my wife being diagnosed last year with lymphoma and watching her go through chemotherapy and immunotherapy. She is in complete remission. I was comfortable with the threat of my health challenges and their possible outcomes. My wife’s diagnosis truly took my outlook on life and our marriage to a new level of focus on living every moment as a gift and an opportunity. We just celebrated 42 years of marriage this week and our goal has always been to dance at our 75th anniversary healthy and joyfully surrounded by family and friends. We are still focused on that goal but we are dancing daily celebrating life and love. My light is shining very brightly everyday as is hers. Thank you Jesus!
Thanks for sharing your story, Bob, and your wife's. Your "bright light" shined through your words, and simply reading what you wrote helped to brighten my day.
Thank you again for the thought-provoking ideas you share!! I would like to ask you if you dont consider this quote as a manifestation of ego - "I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending, that haunts our sleep so much as the fear that our lives will not have mattered, that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived. — Harold Kushner?? I ask because I think that striving to leave a legacy for others to worship (or curse) is about needing to impress future generations - our ego wants to be immortal. But if the universe remembers us as a spirit that walked lightly on the earth, showing discreet kindness and doing little to harm our fragile ecosystems, to my mind that would be a more laudable goal. Jesus spoke about not praying ostentatiously like the Pharisees, but quietly and simply without seeking attention or acclaim from others. Looking forward to your weekly wisdom!!
Thanks, Jon, you ask an interesting question. I've always loved that Kushner quote, but having now seen it from your perspective, I wish he'd stopped at "will not have mattered." If he had, the observation would have been completely personal and without a hint of desire for acclaim or legacy creation. As it is, he went on to muddy the waters a bit. Thanks for helping me see it in a new way.
"Out of the wreck I rise." This quote struck me more than any other in this week's theme. This how I think of all the "wrecks" I rose from throughout my life, most notably my car accident which certainly could qualify as a brush with death. Somehow, I never thought of it as a lesson of my mortality. My life lessons fell on deaf ears. This newest "wreck" of living with dementia is something I will not rise from, and the lesson is loud and clear. Live fully and gratefully for every day.
Thanks, Pat. Yes, that is indeed a powerful quotation. Your latest challenge is a formidable one, but I firmly believe that you will once again rise to the occasion.
Great topic today. But first of all, thanks for sharing your story. Keep up the good work. I'm waiting to hear that you reach your goal. Exactly 40 years ago, my life took an abrupt turn.....and all for the good. First day of spring, 1985, on a Thursday evening... I 'discovered' a lump where there was no lump the day before (well, it seemed that way). Discovering that I had cancer was a great motivator to get moving and do what I had been slow pedaling toward for at least 14 years. Surviving cancer (or any serious situation) can be a great game changer. I am so very lucky and I say so every day before I get out of bed.
Thanks, Arlene, I appreciate your kind wishes. You and me and so many others have had a very similar experience with cancer, a "wake-up call" of you will. We are fortunate indeed.
Mardy - I enjoyed your post! Great topic and informative about PTSG. I agree 100%. You’ve posted the Christopher Hitchens quote before but I love it so much so thank you for sharing it again. I hope when I get the tap, I will be so spent from a good time at the party, that I will accept the escort out. :)
Thanks, Manisha. Always nice to hear from you. I too have long loved that Hitchens quotation. It's a brilliant metaphor, and so perfectly pursued that all of can immediately relate to it.
Three occurrences tell me my body likes to create cancers. Glad you're doing well, Dr. Mardy. Really applaud your decision to moderate but not completely exclude personally enjoyable food and drink from your life. Today, after all, is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Three?!!! Apparently your body LOVES to create cancers. I'm glad you're still around to talk about it. Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate your support for my approach.
Thanks for all you do. It seems we are walking parallel paths. My perspective on health and new beginning wasn't my very near-death experience in 2016 and subsequent realization that alcohol & I had never collaborated very well, resulting in never drinking again the day after I drank a tumbler of rum that had no impact on my cognition. The biggest change in my health came after hospitalization for bleeding ulcers after waking in a pool of bloody vomit and then a second hospitalization after an incapacitating lower back strain introduced me to a chiropractor expert in functional medicine. The medical doctors are only good at making sick people well and not making well people better. The withdrawal cravings of refined sugar had all the symptoms of a real addiction. The transition to a largely vegetable-based diet had enormous benefits, including losing about 50 pounds gained during the pandemic. While a life-long athlete, transitioning to an entirely new workout regime has also been a tremendous benefit, partly inspired by a friend who quit being a medical doctor to open up her own gym because she wanted to make people better. Maybe our medical establishment needs to reconsider what health care really is.
I stumbled across these quotes about medicine. I think that health care in the US focuses on prescriptions and band aids rather than driving the underlying behavioral changes needed to promote real health improvements:
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. - Voltaire
While the core of this may be true, the increasing corporatization of US health care make this less common & Bryce's observation ignores the many organizations that get created to do something and then sunset after their goal is achieved:
Medicine, the only profession that labors incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence. -James Bryce
Thanks, Bill. Parallel paths indeed! I'm so glad you started making healthier choices, and delighted that you found a doctor-owned gym. Thanks for the medicine quotes. Once I authenticate them, I'll add them to my online database.
Being superstitious, I stopped counting my "brushes with mortality" at eight. At the old men's home I ran at twenty-six, a ninety-three year old man fell head over heels down a full flight of stairs. He suffered no serious injury and when I questioned him he said he relaxed into the fall. At seventy-two, I fell twenty-five feet on to frozen ground from a tree stand. Drifting down through the cold dark air, the word relax sounded in my head. Could have been Christopher Reeve or dead but suffered only one broken rib. Sometimes mortality can be warded off by the wisdom of an old man.
"Death is not so bad if you don't have to be there when it happens"
Another apt quote (while not exactly fitting this week's theme, it at least "rhymes" with it), is from Samuel Johnson,
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
I'm glad to hear all is going so well for you health-wise! You could now, officially, be a poster child for the witty observation, "Getting old isn't for the faint of heart."
Thanks, that is a classic quote. Thanks also for the kind words about my health. I don't know if I'm ready to be a poster child, but I am pleased with the progress I've made
Hi Mardy. Louis L'Amour's writing is delightful. It was fun to see your post of him as the mystery man of the week. I've only read a couple of his Sackett stories, the first one with the main character as Echo Sackett. I'm not as feisty as she, but enjoyed her adventures. Thanks for all your good research that produces such gems.
“It’s never too late to turn from the errors of our ways.”"
It is also never too late to turn from the ways of our errors.
Thanks, Louis, a lovely chiastic tweak!
Thoughtful as ever, Mardy. Hope you are keeping well and healthy. All the best, John.
Thanks, John. Always nice to hear from you.
Excellent article. Thank you. I, too, have faced cancer. I was 57 when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I have now been cancer-free for almost 20 years. I have also had double-bypass heart surgery in 2019. Both events changed me in some small ways. I recently published poetry about my cancer journey. I see the cancer as a gift. https://harleyking.substack.com/p/the-gift-of-cancer
Thanks for sharing your story, Harley. I just paid a brief, but enjoyable visit to your sight, and will soon be back for more. Love the fact that you've presented audio versions as well. It's always special to actually hear poets recite their own poems.
I agree Harley! I am where I am because of cancer...and I'm so thankful! I met a guy in a 'survivors' group (after my surgery) who told all of us that when he learned that he had cancer that wasn't treatable, was told to go home and prepare for the worse. The doctors gave him 6-9 months to live. He got a bit angry and went home and changed his life...mostly his diet. When we met, he was 11 years post that 'get ready to die' advice from his doctors!! One of the things he started to eat were raw veggie salads. He brought us a sample of one of his best dishes... RAW grated beets and carrots, sunflower seeds, raw honey and olive oil and lemon. I still enjoy this salad.
Thanks, Arlene. I will have to try the salad. Not sure about the beets.
Harley...the BEETS (small ones) are just about the healthiest thing you can eat. Grate them up and enjoy with the carrots...add some raw shredded cabbage too. with some raw honey, and lemon, you'll love them. Beets are so good for the immune system. Try 'em, you'll like 'em.
Live every moment as if it will be a first—because it is.
Thanks, Harvey, that is damn good advice.
Per normal humans, I learned the hard way. :-)
ooops, timely quote from Senator Joni Ernst "Everybody dies"...
but other than that, coincidentally, in January our book club has its planning meeting & I have thought my suggestion might be 'Tuesdays with Morrie' (reading some reviews of this other book tho are just so-so)
My doctor, who specializes in serving those of us over the age of 65, avoids prescribing meds as much as possible, gives a thumbs-up to the Mediterranean diet (which I've pretty much followed for about 30 yrs) & believes your #3, exercise, is the best medicine one can practice! Good job on everything you've been doing!! WOW!! I also gave up my extra dry vodka martinis w/ extra olives several yrs ago. They were pretty yummy, but now I'll just have the olives & pretend. ;-)
mortality hasn't come too close, however, sadness has, & Carl Jung's quote fits: "The descent into the depths always seems to precede the ascent."
your subject today, imo, is much better than taking on victimhood.
Thanks, dj. Yes, "Tuesdays with Morrie" is the far superior book. Thanks for the supportive words about my progress (interesting about our shared past love for vodka martinis). I appreciate your keeping in touch.
Wow dj....you sound like someone I'd like to add to my 'friend' list!! Tuesdays with Morrie' is one of my favorites and sits here on my bookshelves along with another Albom book. "5 people you meet in heaven". I'm not a drinker but I was hooked on potato chips... I have changed my eating habits greatly and even stopped taking some meds...4 months on, no ill effects...getting my blood work done every 3 months and it's all good so far. I think doctors, globally, give out pills like candy at Halloween. People tend to take the easy (and maybe fatal route) to getting well... I think we ought to make changes because 'you are what you eat'...Not always, but often. We need to be part of the cure...not a lab specimen... Thanks. A good newsletter again Dr. M...
Thanks, Arlene, I'm a potato chip lover as well, but I now view them as an occasional treat rather than regular fare. I actually enjoy them more in small portions because I take smaller bites and more time to savor their deliciousness!
Non smoking throat cancer (HPV) was defeated by surgery and radiation 7 years ago. The experience led to the early detection of a non smoking lung cancer defeated with surgery (removal of my upper left lobe) 5 years ago. Both were sobering and ultimately uplifting. I have always been a grateful person but these experiences elevated my GRATITUDE to a new and extremely high level. I have chosen to be a BRIGHT LIGHT in the world. My experience pales in comparison to the impact of my wife being diagnosed last year with lymphoma and watching her go through chemotherapy and immunotherapy. She is in complete remission. I was comfortable with the threat of my health challenges and their possible outcomes. My wife’s diagnosis truly took my outlook on life and our marriage to a new level of focus on living every moment as a gift and an opportunity. We just celebrated 42 years of marriage this week and our goal has always been to dance at our 75th anniversary healthy and joyfully surrounded by family and friends. We are still focused on that goal but we are dancing daily celebrating life and love. My light is shining very brightly everyday as is hers. Thank you Jesus!
Thanks for sharing your story, Bob, and your wife's. Your "bright light" shined through your words, and simply reading what you wrote helped to brighten my day.
Thank you again for the thought-provoking ideas you share!! I would like to ask you if you dont consider this quote as a manifestation of ego - "I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending, that haunts our sleep so much as the fear that our lives will not have mattered, that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived. — Harold Kushner?? I ask because I think that striving to leave a legacy for others to worship (or curse) is about needing to impress future generations - our ego wants to be immortal. But if the universe remembers us as a spirit that walked lightly on the earth, showing discreet kindness and doing little to harm our fragile ecosystems, to my mind that would be a more laudable goal. Jesus spoke about not praying ostentatiously like the Pharisees, but quietly and simply without seeking attention or acclaim from others. Looking forward to your weekly wisdom!!
Thanks, Jon, you ask an interesting question. I've always loved that Kushner quote, but having now seen it from your perspective, I wish he'd stopped at "will not have mattered." If he had, the observation would have been completely personal and without a hint of desire for acclaim or legacy creation. As it is, he went on to muddy the waters a bit. Thanks for helping me see it in a new way.
"Out of the wreck I rise." This quote struck me more than any other in this week's theme. This how I think of all the "wrecks" I rose from throughout my life, most notably my car accident which certainly could qualify as a brush with death. Somehow, I never thought of it as a lesson of my mortality. My life lessons fell on deaf ears. This newest "wreck" of living with dementia is something I will not rise from, and the lesson is loud and clear. Live fully and gratefully for every day.
Thanks, Pat. Yes, that is indeed a powerful quotation. Your latest challenge is a formidable one, but I firmly believe that you will once again rise to the occasion.
Great topic today. But first of all, thanks for sharing your story. Keep up the good work. I'm waiting to hear that you reach your goal. Exactly 40 years ago, my life took an abrupt turn.....and all for the good. First day of spring, 1985, on a Thursday evening... I 'discovered' a lump where there was no lump the day before (well, it seemed that way). Discovering that I had cancer was a great motivator to get moving and do what I had been slow pedaling toward for at least 14 years. Surviving cancer (or any serious situation) can be a great game changer. I am so very lucky and I say so every day before I get out of bed.
Thanks, Arlene, I appreciate your kind wishes. You and me and so many others have had a very similar experience with cancer, a "wake-up call" of you will. We are fortunate indeed.
Mardy - I enjoyed your post! Great topic and informative about PTSG. I agree 100%. You’ve posted the Christopher Hitchens quote before but I love it so much so thank you for sharing it again. I hope when I get the tap, I will be so spent from a good time at the party, that I will accept the escort out. :)
Thanks, Manisha. Always nice to hear from you. I too have long loved that Hitchens quotation. It's a brilliant metaphor, and so perfectly pursued that all of can immediately relate to it.
Three occurrences tell me my body likes to create cancers. Glad you're doing well, Dr. Mardy. Really applaud your decision to moderate but not completely exclude personally enjoyable food and drink from your life. Today, after all, is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Three?!!! Apparently your body LOVES to create cancers. I'm glad you're still around to talk about it. Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate your support for my approach.
Thanks for all you do. It seems we are walking parallel paths. My perspective on health and new beginning wasn't my very near-death experience in 2016 and subsequent realization that alcohol & I had never collaborated very well, resulting in never drinking again the day after I drank a tumbler of rum that had no impact on my cognition. The biggest change in my health came after hospitalization for bleeding ulcers after waking in a pool of bloody vomit and then a second hospitalization after an incapacitating lower back strain introduced me to a chiropractor expert in functional medicine. The medical doctors are only good at making sick people well and not making well people better. The withdrawal cravings of refined sugar had all the symptoms of a real addiction. The transition to a largely vegetable-based diet had enormous benefits, including losing about 50 pounds gained during the pandemic. While a life-long athlete, transitioning to an entirely new workout regime has also been a tremendous benefit, partly inspired by a friend who quit being a medical doctor to open up her own gym because she wanted to make people better. Maybe our medical establishment needs to reconsider what health care really is.
I stumbled across these quotes about medicine. I think that health care in the US focuses on prescriptions and band aids rather than driving the underlying behavioral changes needed to promote real health improvements:
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. - Voltaire
While the core of this may be true, the increasing corporatization of US health care make this less common & Bryce's observation ignores the many organizations that get created to do something and then sunset after their goal is achieved:
Medicine, the only profession that labors incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence. -James Bryce
Thanks, Bill. Parallel paths indeed! I'm so glad you started making healthier choices, and delighted that you found a doctor-owned gym. Thanks for the medicine quotes. Once I authenticate them, I'll add them to my online database.
Dr. Mardy,
Being superstitious, I stopped counting my "brushes with mortality" at eight. At the old men's home I ran at twenty-six, a ninety-three year old man fell head over heels down a full flight of stairs. He suffered no serious injury and when I questioned him he said he relaxed into the fall. At seventy-two, I fell twenty-five feet on to frozen ground from a tree stand. Drifting down through the cold dark air, the word relax sounded in my head. Could have been Christopher Reeve or dead but suffered only one broken rib. Sometimes mortality can be warded off by the wisdom of an old man.
"Death is not so bad if you don't have to be there when it happens"
From The Firesign Theater
Another apt quote (while not exactly fitting this week's theme, it at least "rhymes" with it), is from Samuel Johnson,
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
I'm glad to hear all is going so well for you health-wise! You could now, officially, be a poster child for the witty observation, "Getting old isn't for the faint of heart."
Thanks, that is a classic quote. Thanks also for the kind words about my health. I don't know if I'm ready to be a poster child, but I am pleased with the progress I've made
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness. — Havelock Ellis
To be immersed in the biblical story is to learn this hard reality. It's right along with, "The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
When we try to set the boundaries, of any sort, we do violence to the reality Mardy has alerted us to this week.
Thanks, Blayney, that Ellis quote is a keeper, isn't it? Thanks also for your other thoughts on this week's theme.
Hi Mardy. Louis L'Amour's writing is delightful. It was fun to see your post of him as the mystery man of the week. I've only read a couple of his Sackett stories, the first one with the main character as Echo Sackett. I'm not as feisty as she, but enjoyed her adventures. Thanks for all your good research that produces such gems.