WORKING FOR THE 2ND YEAR, FOR 30 YEARS [2-5-20]

Thirty years ago today they took me into the operating room at midnight and removed a tumor and a 1/3 of my colon. My first oncologist said “a year or two.” Two years sounded like so much more than one. I desperately wanted that second year, so I worked for it. Not everyone who works for a second year gets it; that’s not how life is. But I think in the process of working for it, regardless of the outcome, we all learn the same things:

The purpose of life is to have a good time. [1]

The opposite of a good time is not a bad time but a false good time.

Family comes first, but the family that comes first may not be your first family.

Intercessory prayer always works, even when it doesn’t.

You must live within your limits but not be limited by them.

Love is the only rational act. [2]

We are not bodies that have a soul. We are souls that have a body. [3]

Death does not end love.

John Robert McFarland

The full account of this is in my book, Now That I Have Cancer I Am Whole: Reflections on Faith and Life for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them, published by AndrewsMcMeel.

1] John 10:10. Jesus says, “I’m here; let’s party.”

2] Morrie Schwrtz, quoting “a wise man named Levine,” in Tuesdays With Morrie.

3] C.S. Lewis