Many of the people who check my blog regularly do so in order to see how I'm doing during cancer treatment, knowing that lots of emails and phone calls can be tiring for either of us. Writing this blog has been an amazing process of staying in touch as well as sorting my thoughts.
I also have friends who share my reading and other interests, and they check here for my thoughts about SF reading as well as health updates.
I have a definite purpose in mind when combining my cancer update blog with my other interests. Since I'm at home more than usual, I miss the social opportunities to be my silly, quirky self, and here I can express some of that. My capacity to find humor in everything is something that I don't want to lose, amidst the cumulative sense of being physically knocked-down every time I feel strong enough to stand. And so you see a little bit of (edited) silliness here.
My main purpose is that I refuse to become this disease. It invaded me and I'm doing all I can to be rid of it forever, but I won't incorporate it as part of my self, the essence of who I am. I am affected by the cancer treatment every day, but I still have a bright and curious mind and spirit that need to be fed, too. I've been a lifelong learner, as well as a lifelong reader, especially of science fiction and fantasy, which brings me great joy and awareness of the possibilities of our world. It opens wide my mind and heart, inoculates me against fear of change, makes me wonder.
By combining here the events of my treatment with the thoughts and things that capture my whimsy and imagination, I hope that creating and sharing this blog will also help prevent me from narrowing the focus of my life to exclude everything but the disease.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
What Does Science Fiction Reading Have To Do With Breast Cancer?
4 comments:
SF is speculative, and musing on your own mortality is also speculative. It's all part of the exploration of the world beyond the physical.
Just like teaching kids art helps them in more academic areas of study, reading and writing and thinking is good for keeping your mind healthy and your body relaxed.
I read the best book ever at Christmas. It's called Deep Survival and it's about people who survive catastrophes: plane crashes, shipwrecks, mountaineering accidents... all kinds of disasters. At one point the author quotes Admiral Stockdale (of Perot fame) saying that in prison camps in Vietnam, people who could recite poems were held in highest regard. Anything that helps you understand a larger world is very valuable... be it art, poetry, books, music, or any other form of creative expression. Not just for people dealing with serious illness, but for everyone.
I agree. I think it's important to keep at least one foot outside the familiar box we create around us. I'll take a look at your book recommendation. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
BTW, my husband just finished reading "Royal Assassin" yesterday. By the end it was so good he almost couldn't put it down. It takes a lot for a book to capture him to the point where he reads in the evening instead of playing computer games (he usually only reads for an hour or so just before bed).
I was thinking of not going any further in the series, since I've got so much else to read, but now I have to know what held his interest so intently. So I have high hopes that you'll enjoy this one. Happy reading!
Archren, that's funny, because I was at just the same point in Royal Assassin. Last night I read just up to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down. Then I chose an article to read in bed, instead, because I want to finish Royal Assassin today with all my wits about me.
I'm glad he's reading this series too! What prompted him to start it?
At the speed I read, one book is a big commitment (never mind a triple trilogy!). At your speed, I'd say go for it.
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