Club membership

I belong to a club I never asked to join. It’s an organization that doesn’t discriminate between race, age, religion or any personal preferences. It’s members are many. This club spans the globe — from huge metropolitan areas to the most remote areas of Third World countries — yet no meetings are ever held.

Even though no one (and I mean absolutely no one) ever wants to be a member of this club, the membership dues one pays are pricey. It affects not only your bank account, but more importantly, it takes a hefty toll on your emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological well-being. And despite the price you pay to be a member of this club, the worst part is that you can never quit or resign. That’s right. You’re a member for the rest of your life.

My membership began on March 5, 2007. It’s a day I’ll never forget ... it’s the day I became a member of the Cancer Club ... or to put it another way, it’s the day I was diagnosed with cancer ... the day my name was added to the club’s roster ... the day my world changed forever.

I could spend the rest of this column writing about the ill-effects this membership has caused in my life — the uncertainty, the trepidation, the fear, the panic, the horror. I could write about the financial impact, which can be phenomenal. I could tell you about the long nights when you lie in bed and can’t think about anything but your membership in this club, as you attempt to sort through the many avenues of your life and how they have and will become affected. I could tell you how it can consume your days, your nights, your dreams. I could write about how membership in this club changes you forever in ways non-members will never know ... I could go on and on about the so-called benefits of membership and write page after page, volume after volume.

But as I turn my thoughts to the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve come to realize there are some benefits of club membership. That’s difficult to admit. But nevertheless, this terrible, awful, relentless disease has caused this old girl to look inward and upward, and when I did, I made some discoveries that cause me to bow my head and offer those quiet words of thanks.