Perspective

It's all about the lens from which you're looking through.

Isn't it funny how good things can appear great when compared to where you've come from? Or vice versa. Experiences only become relevant when they fit into a context. Further, down the line, when you look back on what made up your life - what defined you as a person - it's never just a randomly ordered series of events. Rather, its a myriad of ups and downs, all building off each other. So, whatever success of tragedy one faces, again, it's all about context & the perspective that context gleans.

So, when I heard from my Dr. today that the cancerous tumor plaguing my body was a level 1 seminoma that can be treated with simple observation my reaction was ecstatic. Wait, back up. I received the confirmation that a potentially deadly tumor was inside my body, and I'm happy? Absolutely. Compared to what the results could have been, this is a best case scenario. And, as a cancer survivor, maybe you're never in of the clear, but I'm very close to saying these three powerful words: i beat you. Make it four: again.

While wildly popular comedians typically aren't the best source of inspiration, I read this quote from Stephen Colbert recently in a Rolling Stone article, in reference to his father and brothers dying in a plane crash when he was young:

"the most valuable thing I can think of is to be grateful for suffering. That is a sublime feeling, and completely inexplicable and illogical, but no one doesn't suffer. So the degree to which you can be aware of your own humanity is the degree to which you can accept, with open eyes, your suffering. To be grateful for your suffering is to be grateful for your humanity, because what else are you going to do - say, 'No, thanks'?"

So, being through two bouts with cancer, maybe I've lost some physical pieces of my body to rid that cancer, but I've gained one thing: perspective. So, for that, I don't feel unlucky at all to have gone through this; I feel pretty damn grateful.