Penguins And Anniversaries

In the evening of the one year anniversary of my meeting the folks at MCV to discuss my stem cell transplantation, I attended this event. It was held in the Mellon Auditorium in Washington DC and as you can see in the pictures, it's a pretty amazing place. I was telling someone there that the whole thing was an "out of body" experience for me. Growing up in a rural background, I would have never envisioned myself wearing a tuxedo someday at a cool event in Washington DC that was attended by Miss America.

At the event, there were several speakers that spoke of living with HIV/AIDS. Although, medically, cancer is a different catastrophic illness, I shared a connection with the speakers. They spoke of the whispers, withholding information from others, and how they were reached out to by those who understood what they were going through.

One of the speakers last night contracted HIV as a child as a result of a blood transfusion he received due to being born as a hemophiliac. Another speaker spoke of appearing on a television talk show and being asked by the makeup person if they should throw their makeup brushes away after they used them on her for fear of infecting someone else.

I read an article in CURE magazine about a person who was diagnosed with lung cancer and one of the most asked questions she heard after revealing her diagnosis was, "Do you smoke?" As she was a non-smoker, the question had never occurred to her.

The speakers and the person in the article all expressed that once they moved beyond protecting themselves from the ignorance of their illness, they became active in getting the correct information about their illness out into the world.

They see their mission in life to be healers instead of simply being diagnosis providers.

Then he said to them, "Is it right to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do harm? Is it right to save life or to kill?"

There was a dead silence. Then Jesus, deeply hurt as he sensed their inhumanity, looked round in anger at the faces surrounding him, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!"

And he stretched it out, and the hand was restored as sound as the other one. The Pharisees walked straight out and discussed with Herod's party how they could have Jesus put out of the way.