Since I’ve stopped navel-gazing with I Thought I Was Done With This, I’ve had some time to get reacquainted with the larger world around me. At first, the things I noticed were still very me-centric, but recently the particularly horrifying experience of one dear friend, and recognizing the ongoing burdens of some other dear friends, have made their way into my psyche and reminded me yet again how so very lucky I am.
Take this recent experience, of my friend Carolyn in Austin (I couldn’t bear to continue reading the comments for fear of what I’d encounter, after the first poisonous tirade). Or the ongoing war that several of my friends are constantly having to fight: to be recognized and afforded with the same fundamental human rights as the “majority”.
Yes, cancer sucks, and many people die from it. But humanity—known and unknown—almost universally supports me as I navigate through this challenge, and the choices I make about how to live my life in the face of it. Certainly no one vilifies me for being myself.
And yet that happens, all over the US and beyond: my dearest friends are being treated as subhuman, as monstrous, as dangerous; or simply hated for who they are.
I’m sorry, Friends. Let me know if there is something I can do.
