February 3, 2011

• Terminal

  [Batman]'s mom was diagnosed yesterday with terminal cancer. 

  "Really, I'm okay. I'm just concerned about my dad and my sisters. I had a great 20 years with my mom. That's more than what most people get, so I'm just grateful. She might survive but the tumor's been there for 10 years so if it's her time, then I just have to accept it. I have to keep positive cause y'know...it's better than the alternative." 

  He says this to me over lunch, which for him is a box of Timbits (mini doughnuts) and a large Coke. 

  It's almost as if, short of having a miracle drug fall into our laps, there is nothing we can do about killer cell mutations. Cancer is a completely random and unpredictable occurrence and we're just helpless, sitting ducks. 

  One thing we're really good at though, is opening our wallets.

  I don't make it public knowledge that I resent the Terry Fox Run, which is practiced every year in all Canadian schools. As a kid, I was asked to pester my family for cancer research donations, and after each completed run we'd celebrate with a school-wide pizza lunch, complete with KFC and neon-coloured freezies.

  If I didn't know any better, I'd call that a conspiracy.

  Because every year they'd show us clips of Terry running across the Trans-Canada Highway but in none of those videos were we educated about healthy diets or carcinogens. Cancer is completely depoliticized and deprived of its causes and origins. It is mystified and put on a pedestal as something to be feared and respected. Cancer is a wonder in itself, so when it hits, all we can do is be afraid and to throw money at Big Pharma in the hopes that it will produce an equivalent counter-miracle. 

  Millions of dollars are raised by the Run each year but this is not what fighting cancer looks like. Fighting cancer is to not eat a microwave dinner and to not dunk everything in MSG. Protesting the Alberta tar sands is a form of fighting cancer. I still get angry when I think of how my grandfather died a decade ago because cancer doesn't have to happen.

  The cure for fear in every case is education. But instead of countering despair with empowerment and knowledge, our schools are actively fostering a culture of slacktivism. Health is not an accident, but something to be earned. 

  • 1:50 am
  • 1 Comment