5/2/2016 10 Comments Run and Tell ThatToday I am living with cancer. Of all the labels I wear in the many dimensions to my personal identity, being a person living with cancer is one that I never dreamed I would wear. It is one that I am struggling to accept, struggling to find a way to claim and wear as one might slide into a new coat. I realize also that there are labels I wear that took a while to fit, a while before I could take them out of the closet and put them on with any sense of normalcy. For example, as proud as I am to be Black and to be woman, there have been days when I just needed a break from waking up and putting on a skin color and a gender identity, a break from all of the ambiguities and complexities of those two labels and the accompanying challenges that have been in place since the day of my birth. I am proud and happy to be the spouse of a wonderful, powerful, beautiful, and gifted woman. But there are days when “spouse” is a hard label to wear; days when marriage is a difficult composite of past and present vague occurrences that made sense yesterday and will make more sense tomorrow but are mysteries on that particular day.
I have enjoyed the wonder of being a social justice and HIV/AIDS activist for the past three or four decades, but there are days when I just have not wanted to stand for social justice issues like non-violence and free speech, days when I just wanted to tell the conservative right to get over themselves, days when I just wanted everyone to be like me and my friends, to be like everyone who thinks the right way. There have been days when I imagine it would be refreshing to be a bigot for just a little while because those were days when bigots seemed to be the only people having a good time. Living with this cancer thing, however, has been a different experience for me. It challenges me to look at the world with as much truth as I can capture and accept more truth than I can understand at any given moment. Living with such a stigmatizing and unpopular disease (as if any illness can ever be popular, duh!!) forces me to look at truth through the eyes of people who live it, not through the cloudy, biased, and self-absorbed lenses that appear when I want the world to be comfortable. Living with cancer forces me to own all of the other labels and wear them in a different way even when it is hard to put them on, even when I am tired or angry or disappointed or discouraged or just plain weary from lifting up those signs to alert other people to my race or gender identity or political beliefs. Living with cancer takes me to a place of knowledge that braces and reinforces my arms as I struggle to hold up the banner of “human”. Another label I wear is "anthropologist". As an anthropologist I have learned that culture is at once messy and difficult and changing and hard and conflicting and yet still the incredibly wonderful characteristic of the human condition. Being an anthropologist enables me to know without a doubt that survival is a basic human cultural axiom. Anthropology is about meaning and about truth-telling when we find that meaning. It is this component of the science that makes it both appealing and uncomfortable. Anthropology is not about keeping secrets. Rather, it is the job of the anthropologist to find the secrets, discern their meanings and broadcast that knowledge to the world. The Anthropologist’s mantra is “What does that mean?” I have had many difficult discussions with my spouse because I can never let that trait go. No matter what happens in our lives, my typical retort is “What does that mean?” You’re angry, what does that mean? You’re sad. What does that mean? You’re disappointed. What does that mean? Now I search for meaning for my own self. I have cancer. What does that mean? Perhaps, life is now about learning what that means. When my mother would punish me or not give in to my every desire when I was a child, I could not wait until my dad got home to tell on her. I would meet him at the door and deliver a detailed treatise about how mean she was to me that day. It never worked, and after a while she would just tell me “Now run and tell that!” as if to say, “I will do what needs to be done even if it makes you unhappy or uncomfortable because it is the right thing to do.” My mother knew that she could not be bullied into doing what was not good for me because I might tell something about her that might make her seem harsh or unpopular. Living with cancer is much the same experience. The anthropologist in me has learned how to look into culture and describe the human condition in rich ways that communicate deep and abiding meaning and indisputable truths; ways that prove and support the commonness – not the differences – of the human race. Like my mother, being a person living with cancer means I will not be bullied into backing away from meaning and truth, bullied into being silent and invisible. If we are to disarm cancer, we must all understand that omitting critical facts about the stigmatizing nature of this disease is just a different kind of lie, not an analytical omission. The most critical truth about cancer is that no one deserves to live with it , that everyone living with this disease deserves to survive and thrive in spite of it. Many of us grew up in a culture that legislated keeping secrets under the guise of don’t-ask-don’t-tell. During the past few decades we saw a nation realize that the meanings of our secrets were in fact destroying individuals and distorting institutions like family and marriage, and homeland security. We are now at a point where we must come to understand the power of truth and know through sometimes painful analyses that secret cultures are dead cultures. We are at a point in life where survival demands that we run and tell the truths of health as a human right and celebrate cultural beauty and human possibilities. Our challenge is to run and tell that there is no such thing as deserved illness. We all are reflections of the great and mighty act of creation that is the human condition. We must run and tell that because we are all part of the human race we are all worthy of love and compassionate justice. We must run and tell that there is no such thing as a bad or ugly or worthless person living with any disease. All cultures, all persons, are great and mighty and beautiful and exotic and just plain delightful. We must run and tell that all resources are human resources and no person should live without care for any kind of illness. Run and tell that all of us reach for peace, not chaos; all of us celebrate relationships that produce life and bring joy; all of us yearn to rest in the fullness of lives lived long. More than anything, we are called to run and tell that we all have knowledge and truth and that our truth and our knowledge fill us with power no one can ever take. Today is the day for persons living with whatever disease to claim greatness! Because we are great and powerful and knowledgeable we can make the world a safer place, a more compassionate place, a fun place. Because we are smart and powerful people living with a dumb and weak disease we know how illness and challenge can mean opportunities to appreciate the beauty of life and its possibilities. I sincerely believe that together we can demonstrate the splendor that radiates through our very pores when we stand for truth and justice and the American way from a posture of peace and power and knowledge and love and health for all people just because we all deserve to be loved. I present a challenge to all of us today, especially those of us living with diseases, to disarm disease by living our greatness with power, truth, kindness, and passion. Celebrate the journey with me; welcome the challenge. Now run with me and tell that!
10 Comments
Tom
5/2/2016 05:47:35 pm
One of the nice things about the way you write is that I can hear your voice.
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Sharon L Snider
5/2/2016 07:43:04 pm
"...Disarm disease by living our greatness with power, truth, kindness, and passion..." I am going to work at taking this advice from you, Renee. I have lived as a diabetic since 1989. I have been very fortunate that I have not had any bad results from this disease because I have not taken it very seriously. I only tried to "sort of" keep things in control. Not tight control, the way I need to, but just kind-of, sort-of control. But I have had a revelation in the past month, and realized that I have been very fortunate not to have had any complications from this disease. So now, I will try to become more adult about it and I will disarm my disease by living my greatness with power, truth, kindness, and passion. This is a new effort for me. I am working first on truth, because I don't think there can be much power without truth, and then as I grow, I will find a passion for living with this disease, keeping it under tight control as I must. Hopefully, in the process I will learn to be kinder to both myself and others. I am hoping this will help me find the peace you speak of. Thank you.
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Sharon L Snider
5/27/2016 06:15:30 am
I have come a ways down the road from where I started when I said I would disarm my disease. I have worked at it and realize that it is just not as simple as saying what I would do and how I would do it. I have been very devoted to doing what I should, but now I have come to realize that it is not just about getting done what I must get done. I must do it at the right times and in the right ways. I am finding this very difficult, but I am working at it. Realizing that the truth is that I must deal with this disease by being very precise about what I do has been very hard to deal with, but I am trying. I am trying to be kinder to myself in discovering how weak I am, and it is difficult to keep the faith that I will find a passion for doing things "just so" and "at the right times". I will continue to work at this. I am so outdone by how difficult this is. I thought all I had to do was make up my mind to do it, but it takes far more than that.
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Louis L Hughes
5/3/2016 10:18:01 am
God never gives us more than we can handle. We just do not know that we are that strong. I am praying for you, your family, your medical team, and all that love you. God hear our prayers .
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Sharon L Snider
5/27/2016 11:33:34 am
Thank you Louis.
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Donna Byrd
5/26/2016 06:08:57 pm
Thanks for sharing your journey.
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ABilly Jones-Hennin
6/18/2016 05:10:24 pm
Renee, Just know that you are loved and always be loved as you have loved so many others. Stay connected. And remember that music is life/ You will get through this. ABilly
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Karen Ziegler
9/17/2016 10:15:39 am
Hooray, a new installment of your blog! So great to read your words. You and Patricia are in my heart every day and I am continuing to send prayers for continued healing. Thank you so much for your blog. I hope you can see how special you are, to have all those different kinds of people praying and cheering you on. All that good karma and love you have planted in the world is coming back to you.
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AuthorRenee McCoy is a writer, anthropologist, preacher, and artist living in Seattle, Washington. Her life has been focused on bringing the good news of God's unconditional love to others and working to support and encourage others to celebrate the wonder of being created in God's image. At the core of her soul is the unwavering belief that we are all remarkable individuals who come together to support one another as we journey to wholeness and the fulfillment of our unique purposes in this life. Archives
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