Cancer Journal - The Deal
Living with throat cancer and an end-stage diagnosis.
Welcome to the Cancer Journal
I am working on a memoir of being a cancer patient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each post will contain a passage from the work-in-progress.
Let's agree on a few things. Here's my side of the deal:
The newsletter is free and always will be.
The posts will be brief, about one every three days.
I'll do my best to have something in it for you, including recommended readings.
Here's your side of the deal
If you know anyone who might benefit from the Cancer Journal, please send them a link. This won't be self-help; I don't have the answers. I'm trying to think through how to flourish until whatever end is ahead.
If you react to something I've written, write me at william-dot-p-dot-gardner-at-gmail-dot-com. And send me criticism. I have cancer, but I'm not made of porcelain.
If you think, "Surely Bill has read [important work on the topic at hand]." No, I probably haven't read that. But I want to. So write and clue me in.
Recommended Reading
Vivek Murthy, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.
Skimmable, and worth it. The Surgeon General argues that widespread loneliness is an important cause of health problems. He has a good summary of John Cacioppo's pioneering research on loneliness. Murthy likely overstates the causal connection between loneliness and illness, but not the connection between illness and suffering. It terrifies me that many people have to sojourn through end-of-life by themselves.
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