Re-Quoted

Nugget was out of the house last night so I was watching myself some 20/20 (instead of his forever watching that damn gold rush show, cripes!) and the special was on with Robin Roberts. I watched, knowing I’d be crying a bit. And I did. You watch someone go through cancer treatment, even if it’s on the television, and it brings you right back to the taste of chemo. Cancer survivors are today’s Pavlov’s dogs.

What hell she has gone through, right? It didn’t help that her mom died during this most current round of Robin’s illness. Having gone through my son’s first run at bottoming-out in the midst of my own battle, I know that special kind of hell.

I watched the show, I updated my status on Facebook about watching the show, the show was over, I went to bed.

When I woke up this morning I realized that most of the show about Robin Roberts was re-quotes. Girl spends a lot of time with her quotes of strength. She’s surrounded by troops of strength-quoters. Sisters who are scripture-repeaters, church hymn hummers.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~Nietsche

Which is where Robin Roberts and I differ greatly.

The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart.  ~Nikolai Lenin

Stay positive! This cheer pissed me off the most. It was like a threat. If I didn’t remain positive, the cancer would win. You try living through an abdominal pain that caused you to sweat, turn gray, and fall to the floor and you let me know just how positive you’re feeling at that time. How you’re sort of wishing the cancer would take you away!

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.  ~C.C. Scott

I am not a person of faith. People of faith think this is very sad. What do I do in times of need?

Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man.  ~Victor Hugo

Besides roller skating, I’ve got all kinds of bad-times-fixers available.

If one truly has lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so.  ~Eric Bentley

Sometimes I even let a strength quote or two in.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.  ~Winston Churchill

But I don’t numb my pain with other people’s quotes.

I eat potato chips.

The only disability in life is a bad attitude.  ~Scott Hamilton

I call girlfriends who aren’t going to quote strength quotes because they’ve got nothing better to say. Because they can’t take hearing what I have to say and responding with real words of their own.

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.  ~William Arthur Ward

But hey, people of faith, people who believe in things they can not see, need to lean on words someone else said/wrote. They think that makes them happier than me. And perhaps it does because what they might be doing is quieting that pain with scripture until the pain quiets down.

Confidence and hope do more good than physic.  ~Galen

I choose to fight my pain with authentic words.

And roller skating.

If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them.  When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope?  We have two options, medically and emotionally:  give up, or fight like hell.  ~Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong?

One more quote before I go. It was just said by Nugget, not more than five minutes ago. We were talking about our son’s mental illness and talking about autism as well.

“What really is the difference?” I asked, “except there is more social, governmental, insurance support for people with autism?” (Maybe? I’m not 100% sure because I don’t have a child with autism.)

“They have more walks, too,” Nugget replied. ”We need more walks! On two-way streets!” he added.

If there is a God, he or she most certainly saddled me with the right spouse!

We need more walks. On two-way streets. ~Nugget

Slays me.