I was busy all day running around prepping my house for sale. It is a huge endeavor and cannot believe I am doing this again. But I am not here to rail against the wacky, tumultuous housing market. That is for another time. I’m here, instead, to rail against cancer. I know it sounds trite. It sounds banal to say that I hate cancer. But I do and I just do not know any other way to express myself at the moment.

Earlier in the year, I lost a friend to a very rare cancer. She had just turned 32 and had just given birth. It didn’t seem fair. It still is odd to me to think she is no longer on this earth. She was there one day and gone the next. And gone in such a sad, horrific manner. Hearing someone breathing in their final hours is ….Well, I do not have the words.

Then fast forward a few months, and while I personally did not know him I was heartbroken to hear of Senator John McCain’s passing. He had suffered from a malignant brain tumor, that of glioblastoma.

He was cranky and off the cuff. I could relate to that. He was a warrior and a statesman. He fought for country, honor and what he believed in. Did I agree with him on all his political stances? No. I did not. But he was a good guy who fought a good fight. He was honorable. He once noted: “Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourseld, sometjing that encompasses you but is jot defined by your existence alone”.” His sentiment is why he was so admired. I believe in that vision and feel the need to live that. I’m glad that he expressed it and others can take that in.

He died after he stopped his cancer treatment. He died very soon after he stopped. The same was true of my friend. It is a horrible decision to make but usually it is made once a person has found peace. I do hope that soon, we can find that cure. We can find ways to prevent cancer. But till then we can keep trying to live fully and connect with one another.

“No just cause is futile, even if its lost, if it helps make the future better than the past”