Stuart Scott

Stuart Scott died from cancer a couple of days ago.  I wasn't a fan.  Soccer is about the only professional sport that I would be interested in watching.  That or maybe volleyball.   I don't watch any of the sport newscast shows so I didn't even know he was going through cancer treatments until he was gone.  I watched a clip of him accepting an award from ESPN.  He said, "You beat cancer by how you live."  Now.....I am a fan.  That statement really resounded with me.  I hadn't used those words to describe my philosophy or perspective on life with cancer. The closest I came to it was something like, "I want to learn to live with cancer, not die from it."  But his phrase really captured the essence of what I have felt since my diagnosis.  I want life to go on as normally as possible for me but most especially my family.  Live and do as much as I can, as much as we can in the ways that we have always done.

When I hear of someone dying from cancer, it affects me differently than it used to. I linger over the loss longer and feel compassion for the deceased and their loved ones in a way that I never used to.  It just feels more personal because of the shared experience, I guess.