When you say the year, do you
say 20-13 or 2,013? It took me a few years into the 21st century to
decide for myself. Since I never said 1,993 I opt for 20-13. Since upgrading
myself from a cell phone I only used to receive text messages, make phone calls
and take the occasional low resolution picture to an iPhone that puts the
internet in my pocket I refer to my life as “living in the future”. I realize
I’ve been here for awhile but now I genuinely feel it.
2013? It didn’t exactly sneak
up on me, but I continue to be surprised at how fast it feels like it came. My
futuristic phone is just the start of the amazing things that living in the 21st
century has to offer. I am not disappointed that my car doesn’t fly and that my
kids don’t travel to school on a hover board. I am, however, disappointed that
there has yet to be a cure or vaccine invented for AIDS and that cancer
continues to be the cause of death for so many.
My grandmother-in-law, sweet
soul that she was, passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 92; quite the feat
in my husband’s family. When I explained to my kids that Gram died from old age
(essentially), she did not suffer from a long term illness, did not have
Alzheimer’s (like my grandmother who passed away in November) nor did she have
cancer (the cause of death of not only my mother a few years ago, but also the
cause of our dear next door neighbor’s death just a week after Gram), my
six-year old looked up at me in pure amazement and said, “She never had cancer, in her whole life?” It was at that moment
that my heart ached and I was reminded that cancer kills so many. I started
questioning what kind of cancer would be my demise? I quickly flipped the coin
on my thoughts and thought of my mom who would say, after being diagnosed with
lung cancer, that she could always get hit by a car or die from something other
than cancer.
In China, February will be
the start of the Year of the Snake, imagine if 2013 is the Year of the Cure
worldwide?! Just imagine.
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