Choose laughter

I’d like to write a bit about my last post. Some would, I suppose, consider it dark humor… making jokes about dying from leukemia.

We all have different ways of facing our possible demise, whether or not it is via leukemia. For some, especially those who have the acute forms of leukemia (I don’t – I have the more docile CLL type), my humor might seem inappropriate. But, for me, whatever my future holds, I choose joy over sadness.

In my past, before Leuk showed up, I dealt with depression. Its a hard thing to climb back out of. Life hit me a bit hard back then and, even though I was physically healthy, it dug me a deep hole. Well, I don’t intend to let Leuk pull me back in.

To borrow a quote from Stubbs, the second mate of the Pequod in Herman Melville‘s book Moby Dick:

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.

Back in college, a roommate of mine had a poster of a cat furiously flying through the air, fangs bared and saliva splashing from his mouth as he is about to pounce on a mouse. The mouse, instead of showing fear, is defiantly giving the cat the finger.

I think that’s a perfect image of how we should react to Leuk. He may kill our bodies, but its up to us whether he kills our spirit.

So stand your ground, give Leuk the finger, and laugh.