4 - WHAT’S WITH THE DRAGON?

Because there is always a Dragon behind the door and it will always be sniping at you, identifying it and keeping it at bay during treatment must receive your full attention

There are hosts of half comprehended, faulty Dragon inspired notions that float around the minds of the afflicted, often taking up residence unchallenged, only to haunt quiet times and steal joy. I want to flush out each one so as to cut it down to size and overcome it with truth. There is life after cancer. There is life with cancer. But you have to defeat the Dragon who would tell you otherwise to really experience both.

With the Dragon, come the existential questions we all must face one day and that day those questions are asked and answered will make every other day better, no matter how many there are left. Most who hurdle those questions and land squarely on the track with answers look back to thank whatever rang their bell - or to pat themselves on the back for ringing their own bell.

BIGGEST HURDLE – START SIZING IT UP NOW, CLEAR IT LATER

People seldom choose to talk about death, but because the Dragon is already talking about it in your head and manipulating your thoughts with it, whether you recognize and admit it or not, we will talk about it right here. The Dragon would just as soon we wouldn’t so it can go about its vile business unimpeded. Talking about death is a hurdle that everyone must clear in order to run a good bell lap or else for ever run fearfully in the wrong direction. When death does creep into our thoughts many wish for it to come quickly and painlessly - a blissful and anxiety free ending. The allure of such an exit is easy to see, but even if possible would be fraught with seldom considered downsides.

Few of us who are at all times really ready for our death: Few have fully realized their purpose, fulfilled every commitment and transmitted every bit of accrued wisdom to the next generation - and then celebrated it all until every tear has fallen and every cheering voice has grown hoarse. Although many think they are ready, few really are. Curiously, it is those who are indeed ready to die, who are actually the most ready to live and often live the longest.

Death can be blissful and anxiety free, but not because of what goes on in your body, but what has already gone on in your head and heart – the defeat of the Dragon. Let’s size up this hurdle and get over it so an undistracted you can run an amazing lap while helping the doctors clobber the cancer.

PREPARING DOESN’T HURT

We know from a study at Stanford University *₁ that if you are far away from death - at least twenty years -you basically act as if you are immortal, as if you are going to live forever. That leaves most of us unprepared for death, so at the sounding of the Bell when death stares us in the face, it finds us bewildered.

We only get one bell lap. Why is it we don’t prepare for it? What does preparation look like? When should we start? When will you start? What resources do you need? How do you make a plan and execute it? Does it make a difference? Does fixing your eyes beyond the finish line mean giving up on fighting or beating your cancer? Which is more important: the length of the lap or how you run it and the lives you touch along the way?

How can you conceive a strategy for running your bell lap when you don’t know how long it will be?

My goal here is to help you answer these questions with the answers that best suit your temperament and circumstance. Those who formulate their own answers run better and longer. They feel better about answering the question at the end, "What did you do with your last lap? Did you really live it or were you just alive?”

See CANCER'S BELL LAP & THE DRAGON BEHIND THE DOOR available through this website and soon thru Amazon.