"It can't happen here." The title of the Sinclair Lewis novel (1935) resonates for a reason: It is difficult to imagine "it" — whatever the crisis might be — happening in our own backyard, or in our own bodies.
When it does happen, there is one question that proves invaluable: What do we do with it? Do we let it fester and do we turn negative, or do we allow it to become a gateway that can lead to deeper understanding?
When I was diagnosed with cancer in July 2010, my first words were, "I find that difficult to believe." Even more difficult to believe was the prognosis: Statistics gave me an 11 percent chance of surviving one year. I realized at that moment I had a choice. This was something brought home to me in [Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor and former Provost] Sol Gittleman's legendary "Yid Lit" course, which I took (can this be true?) in 1982. I remember a discussion about Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and the meaning of life, and I remember Mr. Gittleman saying, "Jung believed that acceptance of our problems can lead to greater wholeness." That moment was a turning point, and that gestalt has helped me through many difficult moments, including the moment of my diagnosis.
Now, a year and several months after my diagnosis, I am by no means cancer-free, but I am healthier than ever. I am thriving on metastatic cancer. My business is busier than ever before and I am visiting more elementary schools to share my children's picture books. And more than that: I am eating more wisely, exercising more energetically, meditating more deeply and living more fully than ever.
I have also become educated about cancer. This has taken the mystique out of the word. Abnormal mutations occur in our bodies all the time, and most of the time, our immune system shuts these mutations down. Fortifying our immune system is a way for all of us to stay healthy, whether we have a cancerous tumor or not. Believing that we are an active participant in our own lives, no matter what, empowers us. We can make a difference in our health by eating anti-cancer foods, picturing ourselves healthy and doing what is meaningful to us.
Recommended reading? "Anticancer, A New Way of Life" (2008) by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., who was diagnosed with brain cancer and researched ways that we can create an anticancer terrain within our own bodies. "The Relaxation Response" (1975) by Dr. Herbert Benson, who made a scientific correlation between stress and health. And "Love, Medicine and Miracles" (1986) by Dr. Bernie Siegel, who considered himself a "Jungian" surgeon, and whose books forever changed the way we see cancer.
We want to get away from the "why me?" syndrome. "Why me?" is virtually a non-sequitur. Why not us? "It" can happen here. Cancer, like any other event in life, can come bearing gifts. Our challenge it to unearth those gifts.
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Nila J. Webster graduated from Tufts in 1985, and she is now a licensed massage therapist and author of children's picture books.
