and the fact that The Secret people would say he drew the cancer to him with negative thinking.
That's why Susan Sontag had to write
Illness as Metaphor.
People kept pulling that shit on her when she got cancer back in the 70s.
She makes a very good case for not treating illness as a metaphor for anything - that it's very counterproductive.
But it's an interesting read, particularly in the long stretch on how TB was treated in literature, and of course, years later she addressed the issue of treating AIDS as a metaphor for god's wrath on degenerates.
In sum: illness isn't a metaphor. It's illness.
It's unpleasant to think that shit just happens and sometimes you can't do anything about it and there's no one right way to be and we're all just blind and groping.
See, and this outlook seems not only so much more sensical to me, but more rewarding. The things we do get right become lessons hard fought and well earned, and so much more ours on both a collective and individual level.
Back when I was a kid, I thought one of the coolest things about getting into heaven is that then you'd know everything.
Hah! Me too! I was really excited to learn about what had happened to Amelia Earhart.
(but not excited enough to wish that I'd get cancer and die)
I was really excited to learn about what had happened to Amelia Earhart.
This really brought a smile to my face. Yay for Amelia, she gets to know everything. I would so like to think that is true.
My neighborhood appears to be on fire.
Must be because I was just thinking negative thoughts.
Of course, I'm always thinking negative thoughts.
Really, according to The Secret, I should be buried up to my neck and getting stoned to death in some sort of honor killing, for all eternity.
My neighborhood appears to be on fire.
Um, yeah. I can see the fire from my window. It's hard to say precisely how close it is to your neighborhood, but it's close.
Not to make you worry or anything. Sorry, Allyson.
See, and this outlook seems not only so much more sensical to me, but more rewarding. The things we do get right become lessons hard fought and well earned, and so much more ours on both a collective and individual level.
This is what I like about it. Well, and also that I get to poke myself every once in a while when I think my reasons/excuses are better or nobler than somebody else's for failing at rule #1.
My neighborhood appears to be on fire.
Yikes! I hope they get it out quickly.
