SEEs

I was just reading one of my favorite blogs, Amalah, and I learned her mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Normally this crazy chick is dishing out advice about hair products, then suddenly, cancer. 

That's sort of the way cancer works, though, at least in my experience.  One day you're eating popsicles and life is good, the next day, your mom is getting a biopsy.  My own mother had cancer of the soft tissue twice when I was in my somewhat formative years.  There was one particular day that is seared into my memory.  It was the day we had to put on special clothes and shoes to visit her in a vacuum-sealed room in the Intensive Care Unit.  Up until that day, I never really thought she would die.  I realized that day that my mother is mortal. 

Well, she's okay.  She's been in remission so long I can't even remember how long it was.  But as I was reading Amalah's blog, I thought about what my dad said when we talked about my mom's cancer.  He said that in order to really be initiated into the human race, you had to have at least two SEEs (Significant Emotional Experiences).  He's an engineer, and he likes the acronyms.  Anyway, people who don't have at least two earth-shattering sad periods don't really understand.  They don't really empathize when they see the photos of the starving African children.  They don't really feel that bad when a friend's aunt dies.  After you've walked in the shoes, though, your whole world stops when you read about some pregnant woman in DC who is now embarking into the world of Radiation and Chemotherapy for the very first time.  And while pregnant.  When she needs her mama the most.  How very sad and scary.  I feel for her.

Let's all say a little prayer for Amalah's mom.  If the Internet can't harness what the Lutheran church can do, well then fuck it.

Amen.