{"id":15659,"date":"2014-11-30T14:16:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T22:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=15659"},"modified":"2014-11-30T14:19:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T22:19:33","slug":"writers-breast-cancer-awareness-transcends-pink-ribbons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/writers-breast-cancer-awareness-transcends-pink-ribbons\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer\u2019s breast cancer awareness transcends pink ribbons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Proof of his new book elates writer-reviewer Woody Weingarten. Photo by Nancy Fox.<\/p>\n

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The pink ribbon has become as much a symbol of merchandizing as of breast cancer awareness \u2014 illustrated by 49ers cap, available for merely $37.95 online.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

December is not<\/em> National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Neither was November.<\/p>\n

October was.<\/p>\n

So that means we needn\u2019t think about it for the next 10 or 11 months, right?<\/p>\n

Certainly every American woman who\u2019s had the disease \u2014 all 250,000 diagnosed annually, all 2 million living with it \u2014 can relax \u2018cause it\u2019ll automatically go into remission until October 2015.<\/p>\n

No?<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n

Despite claims that October\u2019s pink ribbon barrage will fill research coffers, I don\u2019t think awareness should be limited to one month-long streak of sentience a year.<\/p>\n

I live on a San Anselmo hill with a fabulous woman who contracted breast cancer 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

Yes, she\u2019s survived the disease, the treatments, the trauma and the aftermath. But her survival doesn\u2019t for a minute mean she won\u2019t shudder the next time she goes for a mammogram. Or every time she feels a twang in her right breast.<\/p>\n

Or the other one.<\/p>\n

Or, indeed, each time she gets any kind of ache anywhere.<\/p>\n

I’m outraged because I know breast cancer is chronic and can recur anytime <\/em>and therefore I must spread hope 365 days a year (while some folks revel in making supportive noises one-twelfth of a calendar year).<\/p>\n

The truth is, breast cancer hasn\u2019t quite cornered the U.S. market on October awareness.<\/p>\n

That month also has been abducted by advocates of sudden infant death and Down\u2019s syndromes, infertility, pizza and liver and popcorn, domestic violence, dental hygiene, LGBT history, blindness, cyber security, mental illness, Hispanics and Americans with German, Filipino, Italian and Polish backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Not to mention dwarfism.<\/p>\n

All of which seems to spread awareness a little thin, I contend.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m livid that pink ribbons \u2014 whose main goal initially was to fund research for a cure \u2014 have become a marketing tool for all sorts of merchandise that have little to do with breast cancer and a lot to do with profit.<\/p>\n

Do I worry about potential repercussions of making my resentments public?<\/p>\n

No, especially since I\u2019ve just published a book with a VitalityPress imprint that not only chronicles the downs but the many, many ups of my being a caregiver for my wife.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping it will appropriately distribute awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cRollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner\u2019s breast cancer\u201d is available at www.Amazon.com<\/a>. The ebook sells for $9.99, the paperback for slightly less than the $18.18 that I initially established as a salute to the Hebrew word chai, which stands for both the numeral and the word \u201clife.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bargain if you want to learn what you might go through as caregiver or patient, what advances has occurred in breast cancer research or meds, or where to get help.<\/p>\n

My book\u2019s aimed at men.<\/p>\n

You know about us \u2014 most believe we can fix anything<\/em>. We can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Most loathe being vulnerable. But we must be.<\/p>\n

And most despise surrendering control. Yet sometimes we\u2019re given no choice \u2014 like when our partners get a life-threatening disease.<\/p>\n

For 19 years I\u2019ve been running Marin Man to Man, a weekly support group where drop-in members often decode what physicians and other healers say (or don\u2019t).<\/p>\n

Along the way I\u2019ve picked up a few to-do\u2019s. I share them in \u201cRollercoaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The physical and mental health of a male caregiver is as urgent as the patient\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It feels good to let go of anger at doctors for not having instant answers; at pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing life-extending but not necessarily life-saving drugs; at yourself for not having a magic wand.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s crucial to remember each person is an individual, not a statistic (and that breast cancer couldn\u2019t care less about race, creed, sexual orientation or politics, that it\u2019s the most common cancer among Israelis and<\/em> Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Downloading or renting comedies, taking walks, reading or listening to whatever brings you pleasure, encircling yourselves with folks who evoke positive feelings \u2014 all may boost your spirits (and your partner\u2019s).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Living one day at a time is good medicine, but best of all might be doing today what you\u2019ve postponed forever.<\/p>\n

Having absorbed those things, I can now sit here in my cozy Ross Valley home and pass along the verbal talisman my sainted Jewish grandmother blessed me with so often:<\/p>\n

\u201cGo in good health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out Woody Weingarten\u2019s new blog at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a> or contact him at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December is not National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Neither was November. October was. So that means we needn\u2019t think about it for the next 10 or 11 months, right? Certainly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"