Join the Relay for Life

   As we grow older, the list gets longer. The list I’m referring to is family and friends who have been lost to cancer. Earlier this year my step-father, Bob Bartz (Grandpa Bob to his grandkids and great-grandkids) died from the disease. It was a quick-spreading variety that started in his bladder and, before detected had spread to his lungs. Bob was 84, had lived a good and long life, but even so—sans the cancer—he likely could have been with us a while longer.

   A few days ago we, like many others in the Fowlerville community, said “good bye” to our friend Lenny Wise. He was only 70; certainly had cancer not taken him, we would have been blessed with his presences and great wit for many more years.

  Others in our family, lost to cancer, include my wife’s father Leo Church, cousin Calvin Labuschewsky, cousin Jon Finlan, and Aunt Marion Bevier. The list of friends and acquaintances who have been victims of this disease is a longer one. I

   But it has not been all doom and gloom. There have been survivors: cousin Raye Horton, my college buddy Larry Zdan,  Rose Wells, and many others. The Survivor’s Lap, held at the start of the Fowlerville Relay for Life, has a lot of familiar faces. We pray they continue doing that lap in the coming years.

    If you are fortunate enough to reach the senior years of senior citizenship, then some disease or affliction is going to take you. Cancer is among the possibilities. But too often the disease strikes with regularity much younger people, leaving children without a mother or father, parents without a daughter or son, a missing grandparent, and a lost-too-soon brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin or good friend.

   I do not know if a cure will be found for cancer. Perhaps it will for some forms, but not all of them. I’ve read where medicine has had increasing success with treating the low-grade (slow growing) varieties; however, they’ve had less success with the high-grade cancers that rapidly spread and are usually detected at a late and lethal stage. Treatment might keep the wolf-from-the-door for awhile, but not only for a time.

   Part of the fight against cancer is to better educate the public about symptoms. Still, this is a mixed bag. A lump found on the breast, a bloody stool is noticed, a blood sample shows possible problems with the prostrate, or a colonoscopy finds a polyp; these are scenarios that can result in a successful treatment or prevention strategy.

  Yet other symptoms are more uncertain. Is the sharp pain in the shoulder from a cancerous growth or a muscle strain? Is the headache caused by stress or a tumor? Should we run to the doctor with every ache and pain, and seem a hypochondriac, or do we go about our daily business, only to find out that should have visited our doctor earlier?

     While I do not know if an overarching cure for cancer is realistic, I do believe that progress has been made. Incremental. Not nearly enough in many cases, for many families, but progress nonetheless.

    What I have also witnessed, encompassing all of this, is the determination and resilience of the human spirit. The belief people have that they can beat cancer, or that they should at least try. It is an attitude embraced not only by the person afflicted by the disease and their family, but by those who simply wish to lend a helping hand or moral support.

      They made this battle against cancer as individuals, doing what they can; however, more often and more effectively they do so in unison with others. As part of a community or common cause. Each and all pulling in harness together towards a shared goal.

   Maybe the goal is unreachable. Still, it is “the trying” that ultimately matters. Without that determination, even the reachable goal will be beyond our grasp.

    Every September for the past nine years a group of people have set up tents and tables at Fowlerville Fairgrounds, selling food and a variety of items to raise money on behalf of the American Cancer Society. They also take turns walking around the asphalt circle. They are of course members of the Fowlerville Relay for Life.

   This Saturday will mark their 10^th year. For all of those years, most recently this past week, I’ve taken a photo prior to the event to help promote the fundraising effort. In recent years I’ve also taken pictures of several of the participants during the Relay for Life, walked around the circle several times with the participants and other visitors, and purchased a few of those items to help the various teams reach their goals.

   In observation of the 10^th year, the organizing committee has labeled it a “Decade of HOPE.”

   Ah, there’s the magic word. HOPE. A close kin to FAITH.

     After taking the promotion photo this past Wednesday and returning home, I recalled a line at the conclusion of The Count of Monte Cristo, a tale of revenge and intrigue that was a favorite of mine as a youngster. “All human wisdom is contained in these words--Wait and hope!”

    To me ‘wait’ is the patience and resolve, exhibited day after day that’s needed as one works towards a goal. Yet it also seems to me that without hope to accompany and encourage that ‘wait’, the effort might seem pointless or unobtainable.

   The Relay for Life, with its teams of participants, is an exercise in patient resolve and an expression of hope; a resolve and hope that one day a cure will be discovered. In the meanwhile, the event lends support to those afflicted by cancer, consoles those who have lost a loved one to the disease, and celebrates the survivors.

    There are a lot of things going on this Saturday, but I urge you to make time and stop by the Relay for Life. Help them with your support, and become part of this shared belief, this act of faith that working together we can beat cancer.

    As you walk around that asphalt circle, alone with your thoughts, yet feeling the warm embrace of camaraderie with this group of caring friends and neighbors, as you remember the people on your list, you know that you ought to at least try.