Woody Roseland, on life with cancer: "You Are Here" (video)

[Video Link] You may remember a previous Boing Boing post about Woody Roseland—specifically, about his spectacular "Shit Cancer Patients Say" video.

Man. I loved that video, and I love Woody. I've followed him on Twitter throughout my own cancer treatment. He inspires me and makes me laugh.

Here's a video of Woody speaking at TEDxMileHigh about his life with cancer.

So much of what he says rings true for me, too:

"When cancer stares you in the face, you learn who you are."

• [ZikZak]

  I wanted to find some insight, but everything in that talk struck me as bland Hallmark card platitudes.  Carpe diem, crisis = opportunity, make lemonade, yeah yeah…

  Then again, I’ve never had cancer and haven’t spent nearly as much time confronting mortality as this guy.  So maybe this talk isn’t intended for me, as someone who can blithely dither away my time without fear or introspection.  Maybe people who are facing death need more constant reminding and reinforcement of things that seem self-evident and hackneyed to me.

  Maybe when I face death, I will too.

  • [CH]

    Hmm… well, sure… you can call it platitudes. But I do think there is a major point, and I thought he put it really well; “You are here, what are you going to do about it?”. Are you going to do anything about it? Tomorrow you might not be here.

    I don’t think his point was really about any “carpe diem” or making lemonade. Just that we have an enormous potential of doing… something… if we just all put our heads together, or individually just decided to “do something”. Step up to the plate, it’s your turn, do something… for others!

  • [chaopoiesis]

    Maybe this will help: as alluded to by the speaker, a lot comes down to odds and choices.  The doctors will ask (at least they did to me): do you want a second surgery? Or do you want chemo?  

    How in hell was I supposed to make such a decision?  I went with the surgery (major abdominal) since it was what I knew, while the chemo seemed scary. The irony being that the surgery turned up something the doctors said needed chemo, so I ended up getting both after all, when presumably I could have gone straight to the chemo, with the same outcome.

    Presumably: the doctors give you choices, your type of cancer gives you odds, your genetics give you odds unknown. You hope the surgeon doesn’t have a bad day. Behind all the up-with-people and Hallmark fluff, it all comes down to cold chance: you roll the die, and pray.

• [BombBlastLightingWaltz]

  Sadly
  In the end.
  We
  Shuffle off 
  This
  Mortal coil

  The point is, I imagine (being an accident survivor myself and knowing many cancer friends/relatives etc), live every moment and do not sloth off, nor be a glutton. Achieve the most your can and do not bury your talent in the sand or what have you.

• [Hannukah Dreidl]

  Cancer, pain, and adversity aren’t f*cking growth opportunities. They’re calamities that some are lucky enough to survive. Some of those lucky survivors have enough extra good fortune to get some insight, but they probably would have learned it just by living long enough. Some almost as lucky survivors are permanently damaged from their travails. What cruel chutzpah to dis people for not surviving “correctly”!

  I say this as someone living with two types of cancer. The rates and length of survival for many cancers are the same whether one fights, accepts, or despairs. Dying isn’t losing, or then no one “wins”, ever. We’re not doing something wrong if the end comes before it’s convenient, or if we just go on living our flawed lives. Surviving is sufficient.