I was doing one of my favorite things the other day, watching the Discovery channel. My two favorite channels on television are The History Channel and the Discovery Channel. With the exception of pay per hour porn channels that I have only heard of but personally know nothing about, everything you need to know can be found on these two channels.
As I sat down with my cup of coffee and turned on the tube, I found myself in the middle of some kind of shark marathon. I’m not sure if it’s shark week, shark week seems to last longer than the NBA season. Anyway, the first show was about great white sharks and the next one was something called I Survived or How to Survive a Shark Attack on One of Two. In my mind I have somewhat merged the two programs to produce a coherent thought.
People who were attacked by sharks told their stories of how they were in the water surfing or splashing in the water fishing and how they were savagely and unexpectedly attacked by some unforeseen force of nature. There was the story of the young man fishing with his brother in murky waters when he felt a lump on his leg next to where he had tied the baitfish and a few seconds later something grabbed his leg and dragged him under the water. After a life-and-death struggle, his brother and others were able to get him away from the shark, but he lost his leg. It was decided that the shark was feeding on the same fish that the children were catching and that the attack was more of a “wrong place at the wrong time” incident.
There are many people who feel that most shark attacks happen that way. “You in the water, the cage is in the water, Sharks in the water, ‘goodbye and goodbye to you beautiful Spanish ladies,’ isn’t that the line Robert Shaw says to Richard Dreyfuss in 1975 as they contemplate the use of the famous shark cage in Jaws?
The same with the surfer, the swimmer, the wader, etc. Random attacks. All of these people have the same thing in common, they were all doing things that they had done many times before when they were attacked by a predator.
According to an article published by Science Daily on February 20, 2009, shark attacks dropped from 71 worldwide in 2007 to 59 in 2008 with 4 deaths reported in 2008 compared to 1 in 2007. My previous reference to Shark and the constant game of weekly sharks serve to remind us that if we dare to get into the water something very, very bad can happen to us.
The shark, the great white shark in particular, has been called the perfect predator. Their sole purpose is to feed and survive. I don’t think the Great White would swim home at the end of the day and scratch little swimmer figures off the side of a sunken ship to mark the humans he ate that day like a WWII ace marking his plane after a day of combat purpose. that seems to be the uninformed Hollywood-based opinion we cling to. It just swims and eats, and whether it’s a fish, a seal, or your Uncle Bob, the shark really doesn’t care. A shark does not discriminate. He doesn’t care about your religious beliefs, the color of your skin, how much money you earn or owe. You there, He is there, end of the relationship, bites you or swims by without you knowing that he was there.
Perfect predator.
Unless you start comparing it to lung cancer.
If cancer were a shark, then lung cancer would be the Great White Shark of the cancer world, due to its potential to hit and kill you quickly. Most of the time with lung cancer by the time you realize you have a problem, it’s too late. This is why the mortality rate is so high.
As I watched and listened to a young woman relive her hit-and-run story, she said something that really struck me in its simplicity and depth. She said, “I knew if she was going to act like prey, she was going to be prey.” She then went on and told us how she grabbed this two thousand pound great white shark and started beating it until she finally swam away.
You must have that same strategy with cancer, with all cancers. The first step to survival is making the decision that you are going to live, that your life is worth fighting for. This young lady really hit the nail on the head with one of the fundamental facts of life, she Act like a prey, become a prey. After you decide to fight for your life, you must do so no matter what the odds are. Fight with everything you have and with all the weapons that the doctors and scientists can offer you. Look at all the available treatments, never settle for the final diagnosis.
I heard a story where a woman was being held down by a shark, she was beating and wrestling with this thing that was trying to end her life. Gasping for air and losing consciousness from blood loss, she felt the life draining out of her, when suddenly the shark just released her and left. Sometimes it happens like this, you fight hard and win.
Cancer, like the shark, does not care about you personally. He has no interest in the effect he will have on you or your family, he doesn’t care what you believe or who you are. Cancer lives to do one thing, feed on your healthy cells and tissues until it causes enough damage to kill you. Cancer never takes a coffee break, is not easily distracted, and is willing to do the full twelve rounds. Unlike a shark which is more of a hit and run type. You can’t make cancer go away by poking it in the eye or punching it in the gills, which, by the way, I’ve learned are the two places to aim if attacked by a shark.
Here comes reality compared to our two worst nightmares.
The Great White vs. Lung cancer.
– Great white kills for a living
– Lung cancer kills only because
– The great white shark prefers seals and fish to humans.
– Lung cancer prefers humans who are not very fond of fish (it smells like the house)
– Great white attack, five minutes and it’s over one way or another
– Lung cancer knows no time limits, he prefers a quick fight but is willing to fight you in the later rounds if necessary.
– Great white can only hurt you if you are in the ocean
– Lung cancer strikes anytime, anywhere, anywhere.
– Great White has a limited effect on the life of an average person.
– Lung cancer will affect one in five people in one way or another throughout their lives.
– Great White Shark – Stunning musical score by John Williams that plays in the back of every human’s mind when they enter the water since the summer of 1975.
– Lung cancer: music that is heard in the waiting room of the cancer clinic. (the shark wins that round)
– Great White Shark will more than likely be responsible for no deaths this year.
– Lung cancer will kill an estimated 159,400 people this year according to the National Cancer Society.
I could go on, but the hands-down winner is lung cancer in terms of being the more deadly predator of the two. Truth be told, you are more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the beach than from a shark attack. But if you meet one or meet one. Try to stay calm, don’t act like food and aim for the eyes and gills, stay away from the mouth, the teeth are like razor blades.
If you have lung cancer, try to stay calm and get the best treatment advice you can find. Find doctors and a facility that you believe will best help you in your fight for life. Research and learn everything you can about your disease and everything that can be used as a weapon to fight it. Take care of your health, share information with the people around you because they are your best allies in your war. Develop your strength and commit to the fight. Then fight every waking hour of every day because that’s what it takes to make this shark swim away.
If these things don’t work for you, “you’re going to need a bigger boat.” Go out and find one, but never give up. At one of the shark shows I heard that research was being done on things that would deter a shark from attacking. I have also heard of research being done to help determine lung cancer. Both would be breakthroughs in their relative fields. If they could put up a motto that kept sharks away from you, that would help limit your chances of being attacked by a shark to 10 million.
Develop something that allows you to take preventative action before you’re diagnosed with lung cancer, and you could potentially save millions of lives. I wonder which endeavor receives the most research funding? Great White Shark vs. lung cancer, that answer might come as a surprise.
