I found this on Wendell Hiller's Facebook wall. Check it out. Barbara Ehrenreich is, or ought to be, a national treasure. Years ago I came across an essay of hers, "Cancerland," which, rereading it now, suggests that dopey, misplaced optimism has been on her mind for quite awhile. It's available online here or in Best American Essays of 2002, selected by Stephen Jay Gould, who was himself the author of a memorable personal essay on cancer that I discussed here.
All these people who insist that getting cancer was a good thing for them, that it made them realize what's truly important in life, and all of that yackety-yack: they should have made the discovery before they got sick.
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