So I was recently thinking how about wording/describing an experience I've endured at the beginning of this year, and now I have mentally dealt with it, I'm comfortable in sharing.
In December I found a mass in my side, the location of which required investigation as it synonymous with bowl cancer.
Now I always thought in the past, I could understand these situations are when people start to pray/look to a deity for help... even if it's simply looking up to the stars and pleading for help inwardly within your own mind(as oppose to shouting it out loud)... is them clinging desperately to hope?
However I never found this of myself, I just felt compelled to book all the appointment I needed to asap and get a few things in order (wills and so fourth)... just in case!
I carried on as normal, I have a wonderful job at
as a seismic engineer and I'm known as the heart and soul of my team... in the time of my issues, no one guessed anything was up as I continued as normal and just enjoyed life as normal.
Luckily, it was a Lipoma, a benign mass, and not anything to be concerned by.
But it's made me wonder, was my reaction rational due to having never been indoctrinated? I literally never had any idea of religions or gods until I was at senior school (13 yrs old) and religious education was mandatory, and by then it just smacked of other myths like Santa Claus to me... and obviously it still does to this day.
To be honest it's to the point I never regard myself as an atheist, because I don't give any credence to a god concept, in my mind the notion is childish and pathetic, however i would consider myself a naturalist.
Anyways, Could this be the difference? What do you guys think? Have you found yourself in a similar circumstance
Apologies if a little lengthy.
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Glad to hear it was a lipoma, Random. Cancer sucks.
I’ve never had any gods either. When I got a cancer diagnosis, I approached it, like you, as a situation to deal with. I just don’t know if that is because I’ve no gods. I’d like to think it is, but really don’t know.
I have not had any scares, (yet?) like you and CyberLN has gotten in terms of possible cancer.
But I have had a few times where I thought I might die, mostly in my youth, getting in over my head in free climbing rocks, nearly drowning a couple times, and nearly dying to exposure. Getting stuck for a while in a tight space in a cave where I could barely draw even shallow breaths, and started to get light headed from lack of oxygen, (I still can get claustrophobic sometimes, just thinking back to that event.) And the usual scary moments in a vehicle driving or as a passenger.
Certainly different then a more slowly moving situation like a cancer diagnosis or an unidentified mass. Where you end up thinking about your own mortality for a lot longer.
Most of these events occurred to me before I gave much thought about mortality, god, possibility of an afterlife etc.
Back then and even today when I have given much more thought to the above, I simply get in a very productive, "what can I do to help my self in this situation?"
The end of "The Martian" movie in 2015, where the Mark Wahlberg character said:
"This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next."
This closely mirrors how I face potentially life threatening situations in my own life. Put your own intellect to work solving the problem, do not expect any invisible man in the sky to save you, or luck, do not expect others to help you out, especially if there is no one in the area that you can count on, just start solving problems, the most time pressing one first.
Where the theist folks may instead decide it is "god's hands" because they were trained by their religion to think that, and the only thing they need to do is pray and have "faith." And their "god" will save them or take them to a better place.
@Logic Re: "The end of "The Martian" movie in 2015, where the Mark Wahlberg character said:"
Awwww.... Sorry, Logic. Points deducted. It was Matt Damon, not Mark Wahlberg. Otherwise, damn good post. I really liked it. *Big Grin*
Very well put Logic, I always enjoyed a quote by Captain Ronald Spiers in Band of Brothers, "We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there's still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier's supposed to function."
It's pretty blunt and too the point, but it's something that rings true, it is unfortunately the debt that we all must pay.
As adults we've all seen people die from various ailments. Intellectually we know that we will also die sooner or later. But it's really hard to believe that it will ever happen to us and when we get seriously ill we hope that we will recover. But if we do recover it's only a matter of time before we fall ill again and at that time we may not recover. When it comes time for me to kick the bucket I hope that I won't become fearful. I just don't want it to take all day. I might become scared shitless once I get the news but I hope that I won't.
I have to agree with you there! I too wouldn't want it dragged out and just have it done with quickly.
I suppose following on from my OP, I had seen how some of my family have reacted in the past to situations and those of a theistic tendency have been the type to look to god in those moments, which is fine.
But then last year I saw the opposite in my father in law, who like me considered the notion of a god as childish.
However, he developed lung cancer which was unfortunately metastatic and had spread to his spine and brain.
He lived for only three months after diagnosis, but he still just carried on as normal and was firm in his convictions that he was fine, with his final words being "can I have a cup of tea" so quintessentially British.
I am sorry to hear this Randomhero1982, And I am glad that you are well.
You raise an interesting topic, I wonder what a psychologist would make of this kind of situation.
It does appear to be the craving of solace and safety that could potential draw one in to doing such a thing.
YES. Twice I have found myself in similar situations. At no point did I think of God. Cancer happens. In the first case I had skin cancer. I was working support services for the US Army at the time and to see a doctor I had to set an appointment and wait 6 months. That was stupid. I cut it out at home and it has never returned. (I kid you not.) I had the open sore for about 2 years. It would not heal and would not go away. It was diagnosed as skin cancer. So rather than wait, I simply removed it.
Second instance I had a golf ball sized cyst on the back of my head. I thought for sure it was brain cancer. It grew fairly quickly in about a year. I went to the doctor and he removed it in a simple outpatient procedure. He called it a ganglia cyst. That was it. A year of worry for nothing. Still, I never imagined a god affecting me in any way.