{"id":1782,"date":"2010-03-15T21:01:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T21:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2010\/03\/15\/cancer_is_our_teacher\/"},"modified":"2010-03-15T21:01:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T21:01:42","slug":"cancer_is_our_teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/2010\/03\/15\/cancer_is_our_teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"“Cancer is our teacher”"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you feel about this poster?
\n\"photo.jpg\"<\/span>
\nHow do you feel about it being posted right outside a major cancer clinic?
\nIt was the title that caught my eye as I walked past said cancer clinic on my way to lunch earlier today. There’s an awful lot of this “I’m so thankful I got cancer because it made me realise what’s important in life” rhetoric around at the moment – on the internet, on TV, in the self-help section of bookstores, and anywhere else you care to look. And while I have no doubt that many people benefit greatly from this positive thinking approach, I’ve also heard that many cancer patients find it to be just one more source of anxiety and stress, and resent it being perpetually rammed down their throats.
\nThink about it: you’ve been told you have a very serious disease that could very well kill you. You’re undergoing some of the most toxic, side-effects-heavy treatment known to man. You feel like shit, you’re losing your hair, you’re extremely worried about yourself, your family, your romantic relationship, your finances, your career, you name it…
\n…and people keep telling you you’re supposed to feel grateful <\/em>for all this?
\nWhen I got closer to the poster, I realised that most of the information below the title is the kind of common sense, harmless-as-long-as-it-complements-rather-than-replaces-conventional-treatment content that won’t hurt and might just help. Under a different title, and with the exception of the “beneficial nature of illness” line, I might not have given the poster a second thought. And I’m sure some people did find the information interesting and helpful.
\nHowever, I recently helped to develop a translational research project recruitment poster for display in the same cancer clinic, and encountered very strict guidelines about what information can and can not be posted in areas used by patients. I can’t say for sure, but based on my understanding of the guidelines, I don’t think the poster I saw today would have made the grade. For that reason, I’m not very happy about the way the poster and its title target (some might say ‘cynically’) the area’s high density of vulnerable people.
\nMind you, I also get mad when I see parking wardens put tickets on patients’ cars, a sentiment that is definitely not shared by all of my colleagues. So maybe I’m just being overly sensitive again.
\nBlog comments are my teacher: have at it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you feel about this poster? How do you feel about it being posted right outside a major cancer clinic? It was the title that caught my eye as I walked past said cancer clinic on my way to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/vwxynot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}