GOING BALLISTIC

Usually most of us don’t want to live our lives being angry and upset about everything. We find instead that most situations are lived with, and usually easily resolved, by our using common sense and making reasonable judgments in the course of our daily lives.

I think it is safe to say, even about subjects we feel more strongly about, most of us don’t often abandon cooperation and diplomacy. Of course, things sometimes happen which might be delay or upset us, but usually few people are seriously harmed when some of life’s small daily inconveniences intrude briefly in our lives.

  

Even when we feel we need to voice stronger opinions or disagreement with someone else, most of us will pick our battles. 

   

I personally save my greatest indignation for people who I consider just plain stupid. Particularly those making thoughtless statements that can be fatal to others, are what annoys and even angers me.

What I go ballistic about is someone declaring that, if they were they to get Cancer, they personally will not permit treatment.

I usually suggest that anyone who knows such a person, should respond to them by asking what type of flowers this person would like sent to their funerals.

I also wouldn’t advise them to go running their mouth on this subject in front of me.

I worry especially because such declarations, unlike a lot of gratuitous (and often worthless) free advice, is different in that it might actually prove fatal to someone who paid attention to it, rather than to what their considerably better informed medical people suggest.

Instead of talking rubbish, I think I have a nice tidy solution to any little frisson of discomfort such a tricky subject might arouse in them.

I think they might buy themselves a nice T-shirt and matching running shoes; then pose for the media in their cute little outfits. Maybe, if they can spare the time, they might perhaps pass out badges or water for a few minutes at some charitable fundraising event. 

They will be able to congratulate themselves on how noble, kind and generous they are for another year. Later, after they stop on the way home to buy themselves an extra serving of organic veggies for dinner, they will feel reassured that they take so much better care of themselves than everyone else, that such a problem will never be theirs. An added bonus is that they can also tell their friends of their noble contribution to this ‘terrible problem’.

I feel no qualms about my own righteous indignation on this subject since I long ago needed to personally decide whether I was going to play ‘russian roulette’ with my own life by declining treatment.

Facing your possible imminent mortality is something most of us would wish to avoid at almost any cost. When you are given no choice, however, it is truly ‘crunch time’. Often there is an added concern that often there might be no time to waste.

I wrote about my own experiences in an earlier essay a few years ago about what life is like Before Cancer and how it changes your life irrevocably After Cancer is diagnosed.

I expect that the rather undiplomatic hospital department head who told me and the other doctor’s in the room, ‘this patient can live, BUT not without treatment’ might actually have prolonged my life since the Millennium.

I was quite upset and wanted to run away. I remember that I felt the need to get dressed quickly. However, I also realized that I had better quickly make a decision to accept the hospitals generous offer.

I sensed that I had few alternatives, and there were likely so many, many other desperate people who would appreciate any help at all. The added concern is that, if I delayed I might make a decision quickly enough to save my life.

Yes, it’s a personal choice, but one with consequences for your life and that of anyone who cares for you. Choose wisely.

Let others, who have the luxury of philosophizing about it theorize about what they think they might do should they someday be placed in the unenviable, possibly life threatening position in which you presently find yourself.