Jesus in a Medical Cart

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Christus_Ravenna_Mosaic.jpg

US work that is in the public domain in the US for an unspecified reason, but presumably because it was published in the US before 1929.

 

Upon entering the previously unknown world of cancer diagnosis and prognosis, I saw a religious plea brochure on a countertop in the oncologist’s waiting room. Oh, no, I thought, I’m going to be deluged with sappy Christian propaganda. The descent into illness and death is not just fertile ground for Christian evangelists and other proselytizers: It is justification for their existence. Remember “No atheists in foxholes” mantra? It was a favorite for years, until enough people came forward with the invention of the internet, people who had faced death and did not convert to their religion and its and any one of its associated ideologies.

To my surprise, Christians did not spring en masse from woodwork and sewers to inform me of the suffering that awaits me if I do not convert to their particular brand of their particular religion, or of the rewards that await if I just pay them lip service. That’s all. Just lip service. Pretend Christianity. Instead of swarming around cancer patients I saw only the brochure and an infusion cart with a sticker that proclaimed the cart’s technician’s something something Jesus something something. My chemo and iron infusions were performed by a kindly lady who worked out of the cart and arranged it so the Jesus sticker faced me. She was such a sweetheart that I forgave her for her superstitious delusion. Her gentle and friendly manner were far from the violent, threatening posturing of my previous experience with Christians. I can only hope she is setting a trend.

If that is her goal, it is not working, or so I thought. I relied on the news of a decline in religiosity among Americans, but a tour of social media and news reports of a surge in Christian fundamentalism reveals that the religion of misogyny and xenophobia is not done with us yet. Americans working to produce a bright future are locked in a battle against forces that seek to return them to a medieval theocracy. The state of the future is the battleground.

Unless you’re dying of cancer; then you have only the present world that dreams of freedom from the kind of religion and of the kind of government Christianity (and Islam) seek to force on us.

 

More information:

https://bigthink.com/the-present/a-surprising-explanation-for-the-global-decline-of-religion/

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Cancer and Fatigue

 

Photo: Tomáš Vendiš, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The intent to document ongoing cancer treatments for those diagnosed with the disease, but who have not yet been initiated into the daily grind of scans, chemo and radiation treatments, and the effect the disease has on pre-existing conditions and their prognoses. It was a good plan, but I didn’t foresee the crippling fatigue that chemo treatments have on the body. I spend far too much time lying on the sofa, soaking up YouTube and Great Courses + videos when I want to be writing, reading, or house cleaning. * Fatigue restricts cleaning up after oneself. When all the energy you can call on is expended to heat a can of soup, there is nothing left to clean the dishes.

I had thought going into this that I would find cancer treatments and facts about the disease enthralling and of interest to the blog-reading public. Not so. The facts are more expertly provided on many websites and receiving treatments is an exercise in boredom. It involves waiting for chemicals to spread through the body; waiting for treatment to start; waiting for a PET, CT, or MRI to complete its operation; waiting for the slow drip of chemicals; waiting for appointments and bloodwork. Take a book with you.

I have never appreciated friends as I do now. They have helped me with household chores, getting to appointments, acquiring and preparing food, and moral support. Keep your friends close and be mentally prepared to repay the favors in the event any of them fall victim to disabling disease.

Should that happen to you or a friend, you have my deepest hope for a full recovery and a long life.

* I don’t want to be housecleaning, but I need to be housecleaning.

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