October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Actual Dance is, among many different things, about breast cancer. It is also about love. It is also about relationships. It is also about spirituality and what life really is. It is about a lot of things.
In October in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness I will post a daily blog with a reflection about breast cancer. The reflections will stem from something in the play. (All quoted lines are text from the play.)
Day 25: Today is Susan’s Birthday. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Actual Dance is, among many different things, about breast cancer. It is also about love. It is also about relationships. It is also about spirituality and what life really is. It is about a lot of things.
In October in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness I will post a daily blog with a reflection about breast cancer. The reflections will stem from something in the play. (All quoted lines are text from the play.)
Day 25: Today is Susan’s Birthday. She turns 69. She was 54 when diagnosed with breast cancer and the events at the heart of The Actual Dance span her first year of treatment through her 55th Birthday. By this time in 2000 Susan was in the middle of her chemotherapy. I went to each treatment with her, for that was my role in the world as define by her breast cancer. There as a large infusion room in the doctor’s suite with “stations” – really just large lounge chairs with IV stands and a little table --- enough for maybe 20 people. There were also a couple of rooms in the back for privacy. It was never explained to me exactly why we always went to the back. I surmised it was because of the strength of the toxic chemical mix they were using and the risk of her become ill. Susan today, on her birthday, will get up and go to the gym. She exercises six days a week. She looks beautiful and sexy all the time and I don’t even think twice about those two rounded bumps on her chest of skin around silicone implants. The big difference between Susan and me today came up in a conversation a few days ago. We were talking about the show and my work and she turned and looked at me and said: “You know I do not have cancer now.” For me, I still remember the oncologist talking about how the microscopic cells travel through the lymph nodes waiting deep inside Susan to one day ‘wake-up’ from the long slumber imposed by the powerful medicines infused in her body for sixteen weeks in 2000. And each day and every day, I wake up and “l listen, for the briefest of instants, for any indication that the universe has shifted or changed” and therefore the cancer has returned. "Then Susan and I go forward with the rest of our day."
Stat of the Day: Susan was born on the 25th of October 1945. Her age is Sixty-Nine years. 25202 days passed since day of her birth (or 3560 weeks). In world 298000 babies was born on that day.
Task of the Day: Wish Susan happy Birthday by making a donation to her next Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington DC in 2015. Click here to donate!
Resource of the Day: Everything you ever wanted to know about your birthday: here and here and here
In October in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness I will post a daily blog with a reflection about breast cancer. The reflections will stem from something in the play. (All quoted lines are text from the play.)
Day 25: Today is Susan’s Birthday. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Actual Dance is, among many different things, about breast cancer. It is also about love. It is also about relationships. It is also about spirituality and what life really is. It is about a lot of things.
In October in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness I will post a daily blog with a reflection about breast cancer. The reflections will stem from something in the play. (All quoted lines are text from the play.)
Day 25: Today is Susan’s Birthday. She turns 69. She was 54 when diagnosed with breast cancer and the events at the heart of The Actual Dance span her first year of treatment through her 55th Birthday. By this time in 2000 Susan was in the middle of her chemotherapy. I went to each treatment with her, for that was my role in the world as define by her breast cancer. There as a large infusion room in the doctor’s suite with “stations” – really just large lounge chairs with IV stands and a little table --- enough for maybe 20 people. There were also a couple of rooms in the back for privacy. It was never explained to me exactly why we always went to the back. I surmised it was because of the strength of the toxic chemical mix they were using and the risk of her become ill. Susan today, on her birthday, will get up and go to the gym. She exercises six days a week. She looks beautiful and sexy all the time and I don’t even think twice about those two rounded bumps on her chest of skin around silicone implants. The big difference between Susan and me today came up in a conversation a few days ago. We were talking about the show and my work and she turned and looked at me and said: “You know I do not have cancer now.” For me, I still remember the oncologist talking about how the microscopic cells travel through the lymph nodes waiting deep inside Susan to one day ‘wake-up’ from the long slumber imposed by the powerful medicines infused in her body for sixteen weeks in 2000. And each day and every day, I wake up and “l listen, for the briefest of instants, for any indication that the universe has shifted or changed” and therefore the cancer has returned. "Then Susan and I go forward with the rest of our day."
Stat of the Day: Susan was born on the 25th of October 1945. Her age is Sixty-Nine years. 25202 days passed since day of her birth (or 3560 weeks). In world 298000 babies was born on that day.
Task of the Day: Wish Susan happy Birthday by making a donation to her next Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington DC in 2015. Click here to donate!
Resource of the Day: Everything you ever wanted to know about your birthday: here and here and here
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