Story of the Day
"Cancer and
Career Choices"
At
the tender age of 27, I had been married for six years, enjoyed a flourishing
career in the food service industry, was about to buy my first home and was the
delighted daddy of two beautiful and remarkable children – a boy and a girl.
At age 43, I was
two years divorced, owned a prosperous small business, was in the process of
purchasing a new domicile, had found love again and was on the verge of
remarriage, thus becoming the proud papa of two more adorable children.
Fifteen years
later, the children are all grown up and still wonderful, but all else is gone
– marriages, homes, businesses. However, I am now a successful real
estate salesman, secure in the knowledge that given time I will recoup all.
Now let me sort out
my list of things to do: continue making loads of money, find Ms. Right, buy a
new home, raise a new family and I'm complete, right? Not! I will
always believe that at this point, in my thinking, God threw up his hands.
"Enough already! What do I have to do? Strike my child with
lightning? Wait, I've got it – a life-threatening illness will point him
in the correct direction. Either that or it will kill him. What to
do, what to use? Cancer, that's it, cancer. But what kind? Not
just life-threatening, but also a threat to his manhood; he'll heed that.
That's it, prostate cancer. I am all-knowing."
I can come up with
no other answer than that Divine Providence generated my urge to get a complete
physical, and my additional need for reassurance that I wasn't losing my
manliness – okay, okay, potency – led me to discover I had a diseased
prostate. Further tests indicated the cancerous condition was operable,
but if I did not take decisive action and allowed the cancer to spread, I would
be counting the months I had to live and those days would be filled with more
hospital stays plus painful, debilitating treatments. My doctors explained
all the options – at least the ones medical science had to offer – but the
best one seemed to be complete removal of the offending organ. I would not
be the natural father to any more children, since it is the prostate gland that
produces semen, which carries the sperm. I could live with that –
literally. Additionally, any of the curative options could possibly render
me incontinent, even impotent. Just what I needed to hear, but I could
live with that, too.
At this point, I
must mention that we all have several special gifts or talents – there is also
usually one outstanding one. I had already acknowledged and expressed my
entrepreneurial, social and family skills. I'd been there, done that –
but my most special gift, the uninhibited expression of my fertile imagination
through creative writing and film mediums, was completely neglected. I
sensed God's impatience, so as they wheeled me into the operating theater, I
made a pact with my Maker. I would do my part to completely actualize the
blessings of my God-given gifts, talents and abilities if he would just allow me
to come out of this alive. I vowed I would no longer waste time doing over
again what I had already shown I could do well; I would no longer resist the
pursuit and development of my artistic talents since, obviously, that is what I
was put here to share.
In keeping with my
deal, I'm writing this brief account to tell you the cancer had not spread, the
operation successfully removed the disease from my body, and my most recent
tests show I am still cancer-free. The threat of that terminal illness has
compelled me to do what I would not do before – create to the best of my
ability, driving me toward the completion of my first novel and onward to a film
of my own written work.
At the moment, I
have a regular job that I refer to as "my day job." It keeps
food on the table, a roof over my head and even affords me a few luxuries, such
as the best equipment to help produce my chosen work and the time to do the
same. I have never been happier. The thrill and the ecstasy that
fill my life come from knowing that I am honoring my true essence and seizing
this second chance to fulfill my life's destiny – triumphantly expressing, in
writing, my uninhibited passion. Matter of fact, that's exactly what I'm
doing right now.