Breast cancer awareness...

October is many things - domestic violence awareness month, family history month, and perhaps most public, breast cancer awareness month. All of these things (and those of any other "awareness month" are year long issues - though perhaps we do need the annual reminder to nudge us eventually into changing how we think about these things?

I've seen so many stories from those battling cancers, and from their families, and a common theme is "why?" Really, why anything? Why do the good things happen in our lives? If you're going to ask why the bad things happen you really ought to ask why the good things happen, too. Cancer is not sentient. It does not seek out its hosts from malicious intent. It cares only if at the precise moment it looks, if it can catch hold of a cell from which to grow. It doesn't care who you are. It doesn't care how old you are, what you've accomplished, what you still hope to accomplish. It doesn't care if you're male or female, old or young, alone or have a family depending on you. It cares only if it can find a niche, anywhere, to grow.

And since it's officially breast cancer awareness month, let me just say that yes, guys get it too. I have a surviving male family member who had a double mastectomy, and he had to fight insurance company ignorance to get the medically necessary surgery. Why? Because he's male, and "men don't get breast cancer." It took many rounds of phone calls and letters from his doctor to get approval. Yes, really. Moobs get it too.