Saturday

I struggled with the title to this post, I could not come up one that fit. The title is something so silly to worry about.

Cancer prompted this post. Cancer likes to think that the world revolves around it.
Cancer is a devious monster.
Tricking you every possible chance it gets.
I see what cancer has done, too often.
I saw it today.
It made me mad. Mad that cancer plays tricks with us. Mad that it strips away our security and displays sorrow, pain, and shame. I know and you know there is no shame in having cancer. BUT...I have heard so many times how cancer patients feel ashamed, ashamed of their appearance, ashamed they are sick, ashamed they are weak, ashamed, ashamed, ashamed.

You hear someone just found out they have cancer. They look fine to you.
Weeks later, months later or maybe years later, you hear the news that person has lost his/her battle with cancer and you are attending their funeral.
Someone has taken great care and compassion to make your loved one, best friend or maybe just an acquaintance look as if you just saw them yesterday. This job is what I depend on to live, am I allowed to say, that we are part of that trickery? Morticians (using an outdated word) create the illusion, that up until the time she/he drew his last breath, everything was fine.

Visitations are for the living, visiting, hugging, and smiles. I've heard the comments, "they don't seem to be devastated...", etc. I can truly say that I don't give much thought to how someone grieves. I've really thought, everyone grieves differently, which is true.

I understand why I see relief in the eyes of the families who have suffered right along side their loved one. It's not relief for themselves. It's relief that their loved one. Relief that the sorrow, pain, and shame that has riped their hearts and families is gone. Relief that their loved one suffers no more.

Am I making any sense at all? I guess I'm trying to say...that if you don't already know this..."that someone" you knew as a kid, know as an adult, your loved one, or acquaintance is someone who has fought the hardest battle and won. Is it wrong for me to think of death as a victory? Cancer or whatever disease it might be is not getting to rip people apart, its over, battle won.

Remember.
Remember that you never know whats going on behind closed doors. Don't just say "I'll remember you in my prayers" and move on and forget. Do it and remember.
Remember your life, remember that without God you wouldn't have a life to love. Remember that the phones work both ways. Don't just exist. LIVE.

Anything can reach up and strip away your comfortable life and turn it inside out for the world to witness.