Chapter 51: Granola Bars and the Human Genome
Photo from a delightful socially-distanced picnic celebration. Thanks to my wonderful parents for spoiling me. Ridley, my dog/diva, liked to be the center of attention in all photos.
Thank you all for your well-wishes and words of support as I finished my last day of chemotherapy and radiation yesterday. It was a joy-filled day to say the least!
Most importantly, I can now resume late-night snacking (on oral chemotherapy, I couldn’t eat for two hours prior to my evening dose). You better believe I’ll eat at least an entire bag of popcorn and a pint of ice cream this evening to make up for lost time. This last statement was said to you by Courtney, the cancer patient, not Courtney, the doctor, who discourages late-snack snacking and definitely discourages whole pints of ice cream.
To celebrate, my family and some friends hosted a small, appropriately-distanced picnic celebration. Even though this was a “chemotherapy completion celebration,” everything about this picnic felt nice and, well, normal.
COVID-19 is still a real threat and I still absolutely advocate for appropriate social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, and all of the other things our public health departments recommend; however, in a safely distanced, outdoor setting, this little celebration was filled with joy. Even though things may be different now for all of us, that does not mean that they are any worse than before. Perhaps, in many ways, they are actually better.
The gratefulness, happiness, and camaraderie we all felt having a small picnic was tangible. Last May, an outdoor picnic would have been ordinary, no big deal. We may have even forgotten to enjoy some small moments of it. Not anymore, that’s for sure. Every minute of that picnic was a gift.
On my way to my last session of radiation yesterday, my car stopped at a red light and a man with a sign saying “Please help if you can” stood to my left. I regret to admit that before this incident, I don’t think I’ve ever given food and/or money to a beggar at a stoplight in my entire life. Yet, I thought to myself, “why not?” Also, as I write this, I’m realizing I the word beggar has many negative connotations with it. I don’t want to say homeless, because that would simply be an assumption. I mean no disrespect to this man, who was nothing but kind and friendly to those passing by.
I felt empathetic towards this man. I realized I had plenty of food to eat and plenty of happiness to share. I had a surgical mask on and an extra, unopened granola bar in my car. I opened my window and asked the man “Want some food?” I imagine, despite my attempt not to, that I had a look of pity in my eye.
The man walked towards my car, practiced appropriate social distancing, took the granola bar, and gave me the hugest smile I’ve seen in a long time. “Thank you so much. God bless you,” he said.
As he was saying this, he noticed that I was wearing a “chemo cap,” a hat that unmistakably points out a cancer patient. In this man’s eyes, I saw pity.
He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to. There we found ourselves, a young cancer patient and a beggar, both realizing simultaneously that we may have more similarities than differences.
Today, I had a lovely day off of work. I had already finished the first draft of my book manuscript earlier in the week and I had this miraculous thing called “free time” on my hands. I spent much of the day at home, sitting on my patio, drinking coffee, and reading a new book.
In Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, the Dalai Lama proposes various approaches to ethics based on universal principles, rather than religious ones. In this beautiful, short book, the Dalai Lama speaks about ethics, ways to promote the welfare of all beings, in a way that does not depend on what, if any, religion you practice. In this “beyond religion” approach, the Dalai Lama writes about the fundamental equality of all human beings.
He says, “Despite all our individual characteristics, no matter what education we may have or what social rank we may have inherited, and irrespective of what we may have achieved in our lives, we all seek to find happiness and to avoid suffering during this short life of ours.”
This is beautiful, but even more beautiful is what he says next, “The factors which divide us are actually much more superficial than those we share…we are all equal in terms of our basic humanity. And this equality is corroborated by science.”
He is right, in so many ways. As a nerdy lady with a BS in genetics, this got me thinking. The sequencing of the human genome has shown us that we are all much more similar than different.
According to a variety of well-respected scientific publications, the degree to which a human beings’ DNA is identical to another human beings’ DNA is felt to be somewhere between 99.5-99.9%.
Even at the low end, 99.5%?! I’d buy that lottery ticket.
Although to the uninformed eye, the cancer patient handing over the granola bar may have looked different from the beggar graciously accepting it, as we exchanged looks of empathy for one another, I realized how much more we have in common than not.
I believe this is true for us all.
Lessons learned as I finished chemotherapy and radiation: Love thy neighbor, practice the golden rule, don’t be an asshole.
Fondly,
Courtney
© CB2020