By: Evelyn Herwitz

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 14:49:20 +0000

In reply to Pat Bizzell. Thanks for this, Pat. I think the problem in the language you cite here is how everything is cast as a contest or battle. Disease is part of the human condition. I don't think of myself as fighting scleroderma. That's why I called this blog Living with Scleroderma. Contending with a debilitating disease is a process of redefining your relationship with your body, as Sanford so eloquently describes in the interview.

By: Pat Bizzell

Pat Bizzell — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 14:22:01 +0000

This post touches on an aspect of contemporary culture that has always aggravated me: the idea that you are in complete control of your body at all times and can “power through” anything that afflicts you if you just have enough “willpower,” which often seems to be equated with moral virtue. This idea is cruel: because it places blame on anyone with a physical challenge. For example, I hate the way obituaries routinely refer to the deceased person’s “heroic battle” against cancer. What, weren’t they heroic enough? Or should we regard them like the doomed defenders of the Alamo?
If you want to praise your loved one’s demeanor under the hardship of serious illness, praise how they always tried to lift the spirits of anyone who visited them, to find a kind word for the medical professionals who cared for them, and to use the physical abilities left to them to their best advantage. Praise their concern for how loved ones left behind will be cared for themselves. Describe their legacies. All this would be powerful testimony of how the human spirit copes with mortality, without cancelling it.
Indeed, in Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” cycle of fantasy novels. the elves–human-like except that they live for hundreds of years–envy the humans their focused life spans. These, they believe, enhance the meaning of life.

Comments on: Healing Stories

By: Evelyn Herwitz

By: Pat Bizzell