Dear Cancer

A letter written from Ben following his 2011 diagnosis and just prior to Gabbie’s diagnosis.

Dear Cancer,

You’re really starting to piss me off, but I also wanted to let you know that I’m grateful for the continued reminders you keep giving me to pay attention to the things in life that really matter.

I see so many people go through their lives with an attitude of entitlement thinking the world, the government, their employer, or even God owes them something.

You’ve helped me to realize that the true gift in life is the ability to be genuinely thankful no matter what our venue or circumstance happens to be.

The attitude of thankfulness is something that I’ve come to know on this journey that without your help, I may never have had the joy of experiencing.

Health is not guaranteed nor is it to be assumed and those of us who have been given the gift of perspective with regard to our own health are truly the luckiest.

I just wanted to let you know that I plan to fight you to the bitter end and also plan to not let you ruin my attitude or perspective on life throughout the remainder of this amazing journey on which you’ve helped me embark.

I’m going to starve you to death by removing the things from my body that you like to feed on and I’m going to keep my attitude so positive your negative impact won’t be able to phase me.

Consider yourself warned. You might as well give up because you’re in for a pretty major ass whoopin if you keep this crap up.

So, thank you for the reminders, but I’m pretty good from here.

I’m going to get more focused on some things that I really need to address and have been putting off for a long time, so thanks for that as well.

Give me a shout in 25 years or so and I’ll give you an update on everything.

Until then, get out of town and I hope I don’t see you again.

Sincerely,

Ben