Resurrection

Never been a big fan of Easter. For me it has always been a celebration of getting sick on bad chocolate each Spring.

This year things are different, of course. The theme of resurrection or rebirth has particular significance for me. The theme is ancient. It is pre-Christian. Christ was reborn in the Spring as were Attis, Adonis, Osiris and Dionysus from older civilizations.

Today, remission is my resurrection.

This Spring I am feeling reborn from a December dalliance with death. I am reminded by circumstance that ten years ago I would not have made it through to Spring. Or, if I had lingered this long, it would have been an awful painful time that I care not to think about.

I feel it is most fitting to remember those who came before us – those who are no longer with us. This Easter I would like to remember all the people who I have never met who have conspired to save my life.

The chemotherapy regimen that is keeping me in remission did not appear out of thin air. It is a result of hundreds, if not thousands of men and women who bravely allowed the doctors to test hundreds of drugs and drug combinations on them. The people who took one for the team. The people who ran into the fire to save people like me.

Imagine if you will, your own reaction to the doctor who first proposed the use of the deadly poison arsenic as an experimental treatment for your disease. Imagine, if you can, agreeing to try it. Imagine the weeks of trial and error as the dosage is adjusted to find the right amount to kill the cancer and not kill you. As a result, I get a daily dose of arsenic that kills off any stray leukemia cells but affects me very little.

Thank you all whoever you were. You are the giants on whose shoulders we stand.