On Thursday afternoon I flew to Minneapolis to take part the National Breast Cancer Coalition's LEAD Project, an intensive three-day workshop designed to train breast cancer advocates. LEAD stands for leadership, education, advocacy and development. The seminar is well named. It is designed to educate and develop advocate leaders in the breast cancer movement. I attended the conference at the recommendation of The National Lung Cancer Partnership and I am glad I did.
This time last year I was writing about "Octoberbreast", when every town in America is painted pink. As a lung cancer advocate I have been jealous of the support and funding for breast cancer as compared to lung cancer. So I was a little apprehensive about attending this conference and then saying something inappropriate. In the end, I decided that the best policy was to say as little as possible and just listen.
First, I have to say that the group assembled -- both teaching staff and students -- was impressive. The lecturers included cancer researchers from the National Cancer Institute and various teaching staff and physicians from such educational institutions as Virginia Tech, Harvard, Amherst College, and The University of Minnesota. The “students” included breast cancer researchers as well as advocates and organizers from the mid-West, many of whom are nurses, physicians and epidemiologists. The group was reflective of the entire country including blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics. However, I was the only male in the class, which was really no surprise. (Every cancer conference I have been to in the last two years has been dominated by women.)
This particular group was knowledgeable, well educated, thoughtful and fun. Many were breast cancer survivors. Over the three days I learned the basics of cellular biology as it relates to cancer, some of the basics of epidemiology, and how to read and interpret medical research reports with a critical eye. I also learned about the cellular biology of the latest targeted drug therapies and how they work. The LEAD Project is renowned for training knowledgeable breast cancer advocates and I can see why.
During conference breaks and at mealtime I was able to speak with many of these women who have been through treatments very similar to mine. I was surprised to learn that we could speak the same language and that our experiences as cancer patients were not all that different. Many of the participants were not aware of lung cancer mortality rates and funding statistics. Most were surprised and open to the idea that lung cancer is as much a women’s issue as breast cancer.
Many of the questions they are asking in the breast cancer movement and at this conference are the same as the questions I have: for example, why are so many young women developing breast cancer (and lung cancer)?
I was surprised to learn about the shortcomings of mammography as a screening technology and that some women have a “predisposition” to breast cancer, if they have certain gene mutations. It made me think that there may be similar gene mutations for lung cancer that have not been discovered.
It would be hard to summarize all that I learned in three days. What I can say is that I now have a better understanding of the overlapping interests of breast and lung cancer. The National Breast Cancer Coalition announced at the conference that they are setting a date for the end of breast cancer – January 1st 2020. They believe setting a deadline for results will be the first step in replacing “hope” and “pink” with a plan of action. That is an idea I certainly endorse. Why not make it ALL cancers?
Somehow we have to learn what genetic predisposition results in men not becoming involved in cancer advocacy. If we can unlock that mysterious genetic code, we could redouble our efforts to end cancer.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Deadline to End Breast Cancer
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Lung Cancer: The Number One Killer of Women
Three years ago my daughter Jessie was just starting her college career and Yoko and I were beginning a new life as “empty nesters.” We made plans to travel. Labor Day weekend 2007 we went to visit friends in New Mexico. I remember having had a cough that would not go away, but I was convinced it was allergies. Little did I know that less than a month later I would be diagnosed with lung cancer.
Next week will mark the third anniversary of my Stage IIIA lung cancer diagnosis. My cancer was discovered in an x-ray by my primary care physician. I remember my wife asking me what the doctor had to say about my cough after coming home from my annual physical. Not yet having the test results, I jokingly told her I had lung cancer; the very next day I learned the joke was on me.
Like anyone diagnosed with cancer, my life changed that day and it will never be the same. But I did not want the remainder of my life to now be about cancer treatments and declining health. I determined to accommodate the necessary treatments, whatever came, but not be ruled by them.
For example, I did not want to make changes to our “empty nester” travel plans. Yoko and I went to visit my sister in Houston the weekend following my first round of chemo. A few weeks later, I went to radiation in the morning followed by chemo until mid-afternoon. That same day we drove to Tallahassee to see Jessie and attend a Saturday afternoon FSU football game. I wore one of those crazy garnet wigs to the game and attributed my new hair color and out of control hair style to the radiation treatments.
In those early days I was hoping to be able to attend Paula’s wedding, but I didn’t think I would live long enough to see Jessie’s college graduation. Three years later, I am enjoying good health and looking forward to the future. Oldest daughter Paula, who is now married, is having a baby boy in February. My baby girl, Jessie, will graduate college in May.
Cancer never leaves you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about having this disease. It’s incorporated into my life. It’s part of who I am and what I do. I have added surviving inoperable lung cancer to my greatest accomplishments, which include mastering the Japanese language, getting Yoko to marry me, and raising and educating my three beautiful girls. These past three years of living with cancer have been some of the most fulfilling years of my life. There is still more I want to do.
October is breast cancer awareness month. The entire country will, once again, be plastered with pink thanks to the efforts of breast cancer advocates. Mark my words: women, not men, will find the cure for cancer.
I’ve been jealous of the attention paid to breast cancer while lung cancer – the number one cancer killer of women -- is practically ignored. Lung cancer remains in the shadows and on the back burner when it comes to research. No one knows why a young woman, like my friend and fellow advocate, Melissa Petersen, is suddenly cut down by lung cancer. Melissa was in the prime of her life with two small children and no history of smoking. She, like many others, believed that hormonal changes during pregnancy may have had something to do with her developing the disease.
The National Lung Cancer Partnership suggested I attend the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s LEADS workshop in Minneapolis this weekend. The three-day conference will bring breast cancer advocates together to learn about the latest developments in cancer research. There’s a lot I can learn from breast cancer advocates. I hope to teach them to “look deeper” too.
Next week will mark the third anniversary of my Stage IIIA lung cancer diagnosis. My cancer was discovered in an x-ray by my primary care physician. I remember my wife asking me what the doctor had to say about my cough after coming home from my annual physical. Not yet having the test results, I jokingly told her I had lung cancer; the very next day I learned the joke was on me.
Like anyone diagnosed with cancer, my life changed that day and it will never be the same. But I did not want the remainder of my life to now be about cancer treatments and declining health. I determined to accommodate the necessary treatments, whatever came, but not be ruled by them.
For example, I did not want to make changes to our “empty nester” travel plans. Yoko and I went to visit my sister in Houston the weekend following my first round of chemo. A few weeks later, I went to radiation in the morning followed by chemo until mid-afternoon. That same day we drove to Tallahassee to see Jessie and attend a Saturday afternoon FSU football game. I wore one of those crazy garnet wigs to the game and attributed my new hair color and out of control hair style to the radiation treatments.
In those early days I was hoping to be able to attend Paula’s wedding, but I didn’t think I would live long enough to see Jessie’s college graduation. Three years later, I am enjoying good health and looking forward to the future. Oldest daughter Paula, who is now married, is having a baby boy in February. My baby girl, Jessie, will graduate college in May.
Cancer never leaves you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about having this disease. It’s incorporated into my life. It’s part of who I am and what I do. I have added surviving inoperable lung cancer to my greatest accomplishments, which include mastering the Japanese language, getting Yoko to marry me, and raising and educating my three beautiful girls. These past three years of living with cancer have been some of the most fulfilling years of my life. There is still more I want to do.
October is breast cancer awareness month. The entire country will, once again, be plastered with pink thanks to the efforts of breast cancer advocates. Mark my words: women, not men, will find the cure for cancer.
I’ve been jealous of the attention paid to breast cancer while lung cancer – the number one cancer killer of women -- is practically ignored. Lung cancer remains in the shadows and on the back burner when it comes to research. No one knows why a young woman, like my friend and fellow advocate, Melissa Petersen, is suddenly cut down by lung cancer. Melissa was in the prime of her life with two small children and no history of smoking. She, like many others, believed that hormonal changes during pregnancy may have had something to do with her developing the disease.
The National Lung Cancer Partnership suggested I attend the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s LEADS workshop in Minneapolis this weekend. The three-day conference will bring breast cancer advocates together to learn about the latest developments in cancer research. There’s a lot I can learn from breast cancer advocates. I hope to teach them to “look deeper” too.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Fooled By Randomness and Lessons Learned
Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written another best seller called “Fooled by Randomness – The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets.”
I think everyone should read this book because it provides great perspective about life in general. I’ve been reading the book as a way of getting a handle on risk management in the current economic climate, but I am finding that the concepts Taleb explains could be applied to all facets of life. If you can get past the author’s obvious intellectual snobbery, it’s a pretty good read.
If I had to sum up his concepts, it’s the idea that we human beings are blind to the role that probability and randomness (luck, both good and bad) plays in our daily lives. We tend to take credit for our hard work and skill, if we succeed in life, and we often blame ourselves if we fail. But we didn’t choose where we were born or our parents or the time period in which we live. I’m glad I am not born in Haiti. I’m glad my mother cared for me and was not a crack addict. I’ve been lucky.
Taleb says we commonly mistake luck for skill. He illustrates this concept in numerous ways. One example that illustrates alternative outcomes goes like this. Imagine I provide you with a loaded revolver and offer to pay you $10 million each time you put the gun to your head and pull the trigger. The revolver has six chambers but only one holds a bullet. Before the game begins, there are five potentially happy outcomes and one fatal result. If you live, it doesn’t mean you’re skilled, it means you are lucky and brave, even though the odd are with you that you’ll survive!
Imagine a money manager that has five market beating years in a row. We infer from his track record that he is skilled, when in fact it may just be luck to have been in the right asset class or using a strategy that works in most circumstances. You might hire him because of his good track record, mistaking luck for skill. Past performance is not indicative of future results!
You can apply that concept to nearly any human endeavor. For example, like tens of thousands of other people, I am working on writing a screenplay. Most screenplays started will never be finished, even fewer will ever be read by the right people and only a handful of the plays that are read will be made into a movie. Writing a successful movie script has as much to do with luck as it does with the skill of the writer.
One thing I can say for sure is that if I don’t write the screenplay, I can never be a screenplay writer. (If I don’t pull the trigger, I can never win the $10 million.) It comes down to what you are willing to risk. As Clint Eastwood would say, “Do you feel lucky?”
In the last few weeks I have had numerous conversations with people of all walks of life who are struggling in the current economy. I think people feel that they have done something wrong or made the wrong choices. Somehow they feel they are to blame for loss of a job, income or wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just bad luck and it’s not over till the fat lady sings. Better days are ahead.
I’ve gone through good times and bad times in my life. The ups and downs of living are part of the randomness of events we don’t easily see and can’t predict.
Einstein railed against the idea of random chance in physics. He is known for the famous quote that “God does not play dice.” I don’t agree. God invented the game and enjoys watching how we react to our daily wins and losses.
I think everyone should read this book because it provides great perspective about life in general. I’ve been reading the book as a way of getting a handle on risk management in the current economic climate, but I am finding that the concepts Taleb explains could be applied to all facets of life. If you can get past the author’s obvious intellectual snobbery, it’s a pretty good read.
If I had to sum up his concepts, it’s the idea that we human beings are blind to the role that probability and randomness (luck, both good and bad) plays in our daily lives. We tend to take credit for our hard work and skill, if we succeed in life, and we often blame ourselves if we fail. But we didn’t choose where we were born or our parents or the time period in which we live. I’m glad I am not born in Haiti. I’m glad my mother cared for me and was not a crack addict. I’ve been lucky.
Taleb says we commonly mistake luck for skill. He illustrates this concept in numerous ways. One example that illustrates alternative outcomes goes like this. Imagine I provide you with a loaded revolver and offer to pay you $10 million each time you put the gun to your head and pull the trigger. The revolver has six chambers but only one holds a bullet. Before the game begins, there are five potentially happy outcomes and one fatal result. If you live, it doesn’t mean you’re skilled, it means you are lucky and brave, even though the odd are with you that you’ll survive!
Imagine a money manager that has five market beating years in a row. We infer from his track record that he is skilled, when in fact it may just be luck to have been in the right asset class or using a strategy that works in most circumstances. You might hire him because of his good track record, mistaking luck for skill. Past performance is not indicative of future results!
You can apply that concept to nearly any human endeavor. For example, like tens of thousands of other people, I am working on writing a screenplay. Most screenplays started will never be finished, even fewer will ever be read by the right people and only a handful of the plays that are read will be made into a movie. Writing a successful movie script has as much to do with luck as it does with the skill of the writer.
One thing I can say for sure is that if I don’t write the screenplay, I can never be a screenplay writer. (If I don’t pull the trigger, I can never win the $10 million.) It comes down to what you are willing to risk. As Clint Eastwood would say, “Do you feel lucky?”
In the last few weeks I have had numerous conversations with people of all walks of life who are struggling in the current economy. I think people feel that they have done something wrong or made the wrong choices. Somehow they feel they are to blame for loss of a job, income or wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just bad luck and it’s not over till the fat lady sings. Better days are ahead.
I’ve gone through good times and bad times in my life. The ups and downs of living are part of the randomness of events we don’t easily see and can’t predict.
Einstein railed against the idea of random chance in physics. He is known for the famous quote that “God does not play dice.” I don’t agree. God invented the game and enjoys watching how we react to our daily wins and losses.
The Law is a Poor Substitute for Morality
It is too bad that we think that the law can be a substitute for common sense, decency or fair play. It can’t be. We Americans are all about protecting our rights under the law and our freedoms. But don’t we also have a moral obligation to do what is right for society at large? Isn’t the price for freedom about doing the right thing without having to create a law in the first place?
If everyone just did what was plainly right and commonly seen as being in the public interest, there would be less need for laws and lawyers. We have 1.1 million lawyers in the United States. Japan, which has a population half our size, has just 23,000 active attorneys. How does Japan get along with so few attorneys?
Here in America, anything that is not explicitly outlawed is deemed to be “legal”. It is just the opposite in Japan. If it is not explicitly allowed by the law, you should assume it is illegal. The Japanese system provides regulators with wide discretionary authority to decide what is allowed and what is not.
I am frustrated and angry with how people follow “the letter of the law”, but pervert and abuse the clear intent of the law. Take the ban on marketing cigarettes to children. When I attended a Tobacco-Free Charlotte County meeting organized by the Charlotte County Health Department last week, I learned for the first time how tobacco companies are getting around the prohibition of marketing cigarettes to minors. It really makes me mad.
For example, I didn’t know that you could convert cigarettes into “cigars” to get around the law, simply by changing the packaging. I had never heard of nicotine laced toothpicks, swizzle sticks, lip-balm, candy flavored tobacco (snuff) and candy-flavored nicotine drops that look like harmless breath mints.
To me nicotine laced products are all drug delivery systems that should simply be banned. Now that the FDA has the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products, I hope they’ll get to work. In the meantime, tobacco companies and others continue to devise new ways to evade the law and create a new generation of addicts. It is reprehensible.
There is hardly a person in this country that doesn’t know that nicotine is a habit forming, potentially lethal substance. Nicotine laced products, including smokeless tobacco, are being marketed under the guise of being smoking-cessation products. In reality many of these products are being used as just another way of turning our kids into nicotine addicts. Who do they think they are kidding?
What’s the harm of nicotine-laced products? It is widely assumed that tar and other substances in tobacco smoke are the cancer causing agents in cigarettes. Get rid of the smoke and you get rid of the problem. But recent studies have made a strong connection between nicotine itself and cancer. The thought is that, over time, nicotine impairs the immune system and your body’s ability to fight and destroy cancer cells.
To avoid the high federal excise tax on cigarettes, tobacco retailers are now taking advantage of a loophole in the law with new “roll your own” machines. The new machines, being deployed at tobacco shops across the country, produce a carton of cigarettes in about 8 minutes using loose tobacco, which is exempt from federal taxes. A carton of roll your own costs just $21, about half the price of a carton of regular cigarettes.
When an existing law does not do what it was intended to do, we enact more laws to close such “loopholes.” The fact is that people who are intent on circumventing the law will always find a work around. If it is very profitable and illegal they’ll just go underground. The law is surely no substitute for morality.
If everyone just did what was plainly right and commonly seen as being in the public interest, there would be less need for laws and lawyers. We have 1.1 million lawyers in the United States. Japan, which has a population half our size, has just 23,000 active attorneys. How does Japan get along with so few attorneys?
Here in America, anything that is not explicitly outlawed is deemed to be “legal”. It is just the opposite in Japan. If it is not explicitly allowed by the law, you should assume it is illegal. The Japanese system provides regulators with wide discretionary authority to decide what is allowed and what is not.
I am frustrated and angry with how people follow “the letter of the law”, but pervert and abuse the clear intent of the law. Take the ban on marketing cigarettes to children. When I attended a Tobacco-Free Charlotte County meeting organized by the Charlotte County Health Department last week, I learned for the first time how tobacco companies are getting around the prohibition of marketing cigarettes to minors. It really makes me mad.
For example, I didn’t know that you could convert cigarettes into “cigars” to get around the law, simply by changing the packaging. I had never heard of nicotine laced toothpicks, swizzle sticks, lip-balm, candy flavored tobacco (snuff) and candy-flavored nicotine drops that look like harmless breath mints.
To me nicotine laced products are all drug delivery systems that should simply be banned. Now that the FDA has the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products, I hope they’ll get to work. In the meantime, tobacco companies and others continue to devise new ways to evade the law and create a new generation of addicts. It is reprehensible.
There is hardly a person in this country that doesn’t know that nicotine is a habit forming, potentially lethal substance. Nicotine laced products, including smokeless tobacco, are being marketed under the guise of being smoking-cessation products. In reality many of these products are being used as just another way of turning our kids into nicotine addicts. Who do they think they are kidding?
What’s the harm of nicotine-laced products? It is widely assumed that tar and other substances in tobacco smoke are the cancer causing agents in cigarettes. Get rid of the smoke and you get rid of the problem. But recent studies have made a strong connection between nicotine itself and cancer. The thought is that, over time, nicotine impairs the immune system and your body’s ability to fight and destroy cancer cells.
To avoid the high federal excise tax on cigarettes, tobacco retailers are now taking advantage of a loophole in the law with new “roll your own” machines. The new machines, being deployed at tobacco shops across the country, produce a carton of cigarettes in about 8 minutes using loose tobacco, which is exempt from federal taxes. A carton of roll your own costs just $21, about half the price of a carton of regular cigarettes.
When an existing law does not do what it was intended to do, we enact more laws to close such “loopholes.” The fact is that people who are intent on circumventing the law will always find a work around. If it is very profitable and illegal they’ll just go underground. The law is surely no substitute for morality.
When It Rains, It Pours
Morton Salt’s label displays a little girl holding an umbrella. The tag line on the label reads “when it rains, it pours” which was adapted from the old proverb, “it never rains, but it pours.” The clever ad campaign and branding came about as a result of Morton’s innovation of adding magnesium carbonate (anti-caking agent) to salt, creating a table salt that flowed freely. (That is, even when it rains, it (the salt) pours!)
The real meaning of the proverb is that something doesn’t happen for a long time, and then it seems to happen all at once. Swarms and clusters happen in life. Life events are rarely evenly spaced.
Remember the year Hurricane Charley hit? Storms were coming at us one after the other that year. I was in Japan attending Yoko’s mother’s funeral when Charley hit. Our home was destroyed by the storm. We had to gut the house and rebuild. Since then we’ve been pretty lucky. Let’s hope our luck continues.
It’s been six years since Charley and five years since we moved back into our house. We haven’t had to do much around the house for the last few years, but suddenly we’ve had a rash of things that need to be repaired or replaced. It’s as though things know that, after five years, it’s time to break.
Our household repairs this summer included, the air conditioner in my daughter’s car, a replacement set of tires for Yoko’s car, a repair job on the freezer and ice machine, a new sewer line from the house to the street, repairs to the pool pump, the cruise control on my car, and replacing our home entertainment system. Oh well, the good news is it’s nothing that can’t be fixed and we are fortunate enough to be able to afford to fix the things that break!
When it comes to the human body, repairs are not so easy and the cost is not so cheap. As we age, physical problems also seem to swarm. Have you ever noticed that when you are not well, it’s not just one thing?
Many people I know have had a hip or knee replacement, surgery for a bad rotator cuff, surgery to correct a bad back or other ailing parts. Many of these people are back to living an active life, without the previous pain and discomfort. Many say that, in retrospect, they wonder why they waited so long to take corrective measures. Unquestionably, medicine has made fantastic progress in my lifetime when it comes to replacing failing body parts.
A friend of mine has a 20-something year old son who developed ameloblastoma, which is a rare benign tumor that appears in the mandible. The symptoms were a “toothache” which his son ignored for some time. The tumor in his jaw was discovered after he finally visited a dentist. His son was treated last month by excising the tumor with surgery (removing all of the affected bone) and replacing a large piece of his jaw with a graft from his leg. The procedure took a team of surgeons 14 hours to complete. His son was in post-surgical intensive care for several days and is now, thankfully, on the mend. Rehabilitation will take months but he has a good prognosis for leading a completely normal life. Praise God!
In January of this year the Virginia B Andes Volunteer Community Clinic arranged for a bilateral hip replacement for a disabled patient who was wheelchair bound by bone on bone hip pain in both joints. The hospital operating room, surgeon, anesthetist, nurses, hip prosthetics, transportation, and rehabilitation services were all donated by our caring medical community. This patient is not only walking again, but he’s going back to work!
All things break in time, but what can be better than fixing an injured body and repairing a broken life.
The real meaning of the proverb is that something doesn’t happen for a long time, and then it seems to happen all at once. Swarms and clusters happen in life. Life events are rarely evenly spaced.
Remember the year Hurricane Charley hit? Storms were coming at us one after the other that year. I was in Japan attending Yoko’s mother’s funeral when Charley hit. Our home was destroyed by the storm. We had to gut the house and rebuild. Since then we’ve been pretty lucky. Let’s hope our luck continues.
It’s been six years since Charley and five years since we moved back into our house. We haven’t had to do much around the house for the last few years, but suddenly we’ve had a rash of things that need to be repaired or replaced. It’s as though things know that, after five years, it’s time to break.
Our household repairs this summer included, the air conditioner in my daughter’s car, a replacement set of tires for Yoko’s car, a repair job on the freezer and ice machine, a new sewer line from the house to the street, repairs to the pool pump, the cruise control on my car, and replacing our home entertainment system. Oh well, the good news is it’s nothing that can’t be fixed and we are fortunate enough to be able to afford to fix the things that break!
When it comes to the human body, repairs are not so easy and the cost is not so cheap. As we age, physical problems also seem to swarm. Have you ever noticed that when you are not well, it’s not just one thing?
Many people I know have had a hip or knee replacement, surgery for a bad rotator cuff, surgery to correct a bad back or other ailing parts. Many of these people are back to living an active life, without the previous pain and discomfort. Many say that, in retrospect, they wonder why they waited so long to take corrective measures. Unquestionably, medicine has made fantastic progress in my lifetime when it comes to replacing failing body parts.
A friend of mine has a 20-something year old son who developed ameloblastoma, which is a rare benign tumor that appears in the mandible. The symptoms were a “toothache” which his son ignored for some time. The tumor in his jaw was discovered after he finally visited a dentist. His son was treated last month by excising the tumor with surgery (removing all of the affected bone) and replacing a large piece of his jaw with a graft from his leg. The procedure took a team of surgeons 14 hours to complete. His son was in post-surgical intensive care for several days and is now, thankfully, on the mend. Rehabilitation will take months but he has a good prognosis for leading a completely normal life. Praise God!
In January of this year the Virginia B Andes Volunteer Community Clinic arranged for a bilateral hip replacement for a disabled patient who was wheelchair bound by bone on bone hip pain in both joints. The hospital operating room, surgeon, anesthetist, nurses, hip prosthetics, transportation, and rehabilitation services were all donated by our caring medical community. This patient is not only walking again, but he’s going back to work!
All things break in time, but what can be better than fixing an injured body and repairing a broken life.
The Role of Faith in Healing
This week there was a news story about how the famed British physicist, Stephen Hawking, concluded that the laws of physics are such that God is not necessary for the universe to have been formed. Spontaneous creation is possible, he says, without the intervention of a divine being. I say, fair enough, but then, how have the physical laws of the universe come about? If the universe “just exists” in infinite time, does life’s struggles have no meaning? I find that hard to believe. As a victim of ALS, Hawking must surely have doubts too.
For thirty years my wife and I have discussed and argued over the topic of God and religion. I’m not sure we have ever fully agreed on anything, except that everyone should be free to believe whatever their hearts tell them to believe. When it came to religion we struggled with what we should teach our children. For example, if, as taught by Christianity, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven except through our Lord Savior, Jesus Christ, does that mean Yoko’s loving parents (who were faithful Buddhists) are to be left outside the pearly gates for all eternity? Neither Yoko nor I believe God would be so arbitrary or cruel.
Yoko and I agree that no one can claim to have a definitive answer when it comes to the hereafter, if there is such a thing. So why argue over it? What you believe is a matter of faith – whether you are an atheist, Buddhist, Hindi, Christian, Muslim or Jew. Ultimately we concluded that our children should think for themselves and discover on their own what it is they believe.
I believe that faith comes from within and is held within our heart. True faith can’t be taught or learned. It is something we feel and know intuitively. It is literally our sixth sense.
I believe faith and spirituality has a real physical effect on our health and well-being. Invariably when people are sick or feeling hopeless, they turn to God. “We’ll keep you in our prayers” is the refrain of the faithful.
From my experience people with deep religious faith exhibit a certain calm and acceptance when faced with the diagnosis of a devastating disease. Faith may actually help them to recover. Studies have shown that people who attend church regularly are less likely to suffer from hypertension, exhibit lower death rates after certain kinds of surgery, and recover more quickly from serious illness.
The explanation is not necessarily attributable to an intervening God. People who attend church regularly have more social support than non-churchgoers, generally have healthier lifestyles, and are better able to cope with stress, which weakens the immune system. Simply believing that God heals (whether God plays an active role or not) may contribute to the healing process.
We become more serious about God when we’re sick because a serious illness forces us to consider our mortality. We have a sudden realization that death eventually comes to all of us. We want to believe that life has meaning and our “end” marks the beginning of our life everlasting.
My cancer diagnosis certainly made me more aware of my own beliefs and faith. I found myself praying more often and asking for people’s prayers. I’m not that unusual. A study of 200 elderly people in Kansas City showed that 91 percent said their initial response to a new medical problem is prayer. Prayer is frequently used as coping mechanism for dealing with serious disease.
Spirituality and healing has become more accepted in the medical community, which has traditionally not embraced the idea that faith plays a role in healing. Today more than a third of America’s 125 medical schools offer “faith in healing” curricula. Despite Hawking’s conclusions, we should thank God science is delving into the interplay between faith and medicine.
For thirty years my wife and I have discussed and argued over the topic of God and religion. I’m not sure we have ever fully agreed on anything, except that everyone should be free to believe whatever their hearts tell them to believe. When it came to religion we struggled with what we should teach our children. For example, if, as taught by Christianity, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven except through our Lord Savior, Jesus Christ, does that mean Yoko’s loving parents (who were faithful Buddhists) are to be left outside the pearly gates for all eternity? Neither Yoko nor I believe God would be so arbitrary or cruel.
Yoko and I agree that no one can claim to have a definitive answer when it comes to the hereafter, if there is such a thing. So why argue over it? What you believe is a matter of faith – whether you are an atheist, Buddhist, Hindi, Christian, Muslim or Jew. Ultimately we concluded that our children should think for themselves and discover on their own what it is they believe.
I believe that faith comes from within and is held within our heart. True faith can’t be taught or learned. It is something we feel and know intuitively. It is literally our sixth sense.
I believe faith and spirituality has a real physical effect on our health and well-being. Invariably when people are sick or feeling hopeless, they turn to God. “We’ll keep you in our prayers” is the refrain of the faithful.
From my experience people with deep religious faith exhibit a certain calm and acceptance when faced with the diagnosis of a devastating disease. Faith may actually help them to recover. Studies have shown that people who attend church regularly are less likely to suffer from hypertension, exhibit lower death rates after certain kinds of surgery, and recover more quickly from serious illness.
The explanation is not necessarily attributable to an intervening God. People who attend church regularly have more social support than non-churchgoers, generally have healthier lifestyles, and are better able to cope with stress, which weakens the immune system. Simply believing that God heals (whether God plays an active role or not) may contribute to the healing process.
We become more serious about God when we’re sick because a serious illness forces us to consider our mortality. We have a sudden realization that death eventually comes to all of us. We want to believe that life has meaning and our “end” marks the beginning of our life everlasting.
My cancer diagnosis certainly made me more aware of my own beliefs and faith. I found myself praying more often and asking for people’s prayers. I’m not that unusual. A study of 200 elderly people in Kansas City showed that 91 percent said their initial response to a new medical problem is prayer. Prayer is frequently used as coping mechanism for dealing with serious disease.
Spirituality and healing has become more accepted in the medical community, which has traditionally not embraced the idea that faith plays a role in healing. Today more than a third of America’s 125 medical schools offer “faith in healing” curricula. Despite Hawking’s conclusions, we should thank God science is delving into the interplay between faith and medicine.
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