"Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?"*

Sometimes, in my head, I play a game.  I look around and think about other people's lives.  In the airport or at the playground, I look around and wonder.  If 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in a lifetime, there are many people out there whose lives have been touched by breast, other cancers and countless types of difficult situations.

Match Game (CBS, 1973)

Match Game Theme Song 

(go ahead, click on it)

So the game (I picture it as a game show) goes like this:  the set would be very 1970's (picture Match Game), and the host would be Gene Rayburn, of course.  He'd have on celebrity guests (Charles Nelson-Reilly, Phyllis Diller, Brett Somers, Betty White, etc.), and ask questions like:

If you could choose . . .

would you rather have breast cancer OR be living in Japan post tsunami--near the nuclear reactor?

would you rather have breast cancer OR be living in a country with an unstable government about to be air raided?

would you rather have breast cancer OR be living in Charlie Sheen's head?

The celebrity's answer would, of course, have to match the answer of the contestant.  (The contestant has only been me--so far).  You get the idea.  That's how it goes.  Every time I play, for every disaster scenario, I choose breast cancer.

In the game, in my head, I choose breast cancer.  Hmmmm . . .

Maybe, in that weird cancer way, I'm lucky.  I already know my natural disaster. 

But, real life isn't a game show.  And, difficult situations are not either/or.  There are women and families living in the tsunami aftermath in Japan and dealing with breast cancer.  And, there are women and families in Libya and dealing with breast cancer.  My prayers are with them.

I guess that I am lucky, oh ever so lucky, so very lucky--in that weird cancer way.



*  "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" Dr. Seuss (1973)

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