From my perspective, “Why me?” equates to “Woe is me.” Feeling sorry for yourself will not change the fact that you have cancer. It is what it is, as the other two gentlemen mentioned.
Two separate two word questions came to my mind:
First question, “How come?” What might be the reason that I got this cancer? (For me personally, I believe it was my diet).
Second question, “Now what?” What steps do I need to take to deal with this condition?
Of course, not everyone is this pragmatic. We all have different personality types. If you are in a “Why me?” mindset, it might be a good idea to get some counseling of some type to help you deal with your situation.
I have yet to seriously ask that question and most likely never will. It is what it is, but then again, I am a doctoral-level scientist and came to grips with the randomness of science years ago. For me, the bigger question is how. How did that tumor (G6) come to be? Was it something I ate? ...or didn't eat? It wasn't Agent Orange, but did something happen to me on a Cold War missile site in Germany forty years ago where I spent time? This is all just scientific curiosity and frankly, I doubt I will ever know specifically, but, of course, I tend to go with science and it may pop something out at any time. For me, THAT is the 'gift' of AS, a time delay, sort of like the bomb timer ticking away as you madly try to figure out which wire to cut.
It’s OK to ask “why me?” if the purpose is to improve your diet or exercise, to learn about your genetic mutations, or to obtain other information for your treatment or to help others. But asking “why me?” for getting cancer, in the existential sense, is the same as asking why is there a black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. That’s the way it is. Why is there death? We all get there one way or another.
Go get em, Jeff.
Proactive suits you.
Howard
From my perspective, “Why me?” equates to “Woe is me.” Feeling sorry for yourself will not change the fact that you have cancer. It is what it is, as the other two gentlemen mentioned.
Two separate two word questions came to my mind:
First question, “How come?” What might be the reason that I got this cancer? (For me personally, I believe it was my diet).
Second question, “Now what?” What steps do I need to take to deal with this condition?
Of course, not everyone is this pragmatic. We all have different personality types. If you are in a “Why me?” mindset, it might be a good idea to get some counseling of some type to help you deal with your situation.
Thanks, Harley. I like your view as a scientist and the image of the ticking time bomb. Howard
I have yet to seriously ask that question and most likely never will. It is what it is, but then again, I am a doctoral-level scientist and came to grips with the randomness of science years ago. For me, the bigger question is how. How did that tumor (G6) come to be? Was it something I ate? ...or didn't eat? It wasn't Agent Orange, but did something happen to me on a Cold War missile site in Germany forty years ago where I spent time? This is all just scientific curiosity and frankly, I doubt I will ever know specifically, but, of course, I tend to go with science and it may pop something out at any time. For me, THAT is the 'gift' of AS, a time delay, sort of like the bomb timer ticking away as you madly try to figure out which wire to cut.
It’s OK to ask “why me?” if the purpose is to improve your diet or exercise, to learn about your genetic mutations, or to obtain other information for your treatment or to help others. But asking “why me?” for getting cancer, in the existential sense, is the same as asking why is there a black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. That’s the way it is. Why is there death? We all get there one way or another.
Thanks, Richard. Always good to hear from you. You trumped the Why me? question with Why death? I have a similar fatalistic POV. It is what it is.