Cancer Babe

I don't know about you, but I can't help but love an article that starts this way:

"Well-meaning person:

So, have you found life to be more meaningful now that you are a survivor?

Me:

No. Cancer is just a bunch of shit. "

And so begins "Lance Armstrong, Susan Komen, Cancer, and Me" by Ilana Horn, who writes the blog ChemoBabe. Horn is pretty straightforward about her experience. I recommend the blog of you prefer your cancer talk straight up and honest. (I certainly appreciate it that way.)

This particular article (originally a post on her blog) talks about the pressure that comes from being a cancer survivor -- pressure to somehow be inspirational, as her brief exchange above illustrates. Horn envies Susan Komen in a way, because the Komen Foundation was started by Komen's sister only after she died. Less pressure to be an inspiration that way, since the story of your life can be shaped by those who survived you. (I kind of get the feeling that Horn isn't too crazy about the Komen Foundation, given that she added a trademark symbol to the word "promised" in discussing Nancy Brinker's oath to her sister Susan Komen. And because she links to the scathing Twitter account created, allegedly, by Susan Komen's ghost.)

Horn feels kind of sorry for Lance, because he's still around and has to deal with failing to live up to the legend that he himself created.

But she's also relieved that one less legend means that much less pressure on the rest of us to be inspiring.

Read the rest yourself. And flip through her blog. Good stuff.