Importance of One

 

By Juliana Zhu, Esq.

Cancer InCytes Magazine - Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2015

Published June 30, 2015

 

 

Many a times I’ve told others that one’s past is not an indication of the future. To some degree it is true, but it also depends on the matter. If I said this to someone who just found out they have cancer, it almost makes no sense. But even then, there is some truth to that as we don’t know what can happen in the future.

 

Recently, someone close to me has been diagnosed with cancer and the doctors can’t pinpoint the exact location. Our outlook is quite important in dealing with such dark news. It’s natural to be grim and sad, and essentially I am dealing with someone else’s bad news, which affects me. Society is interconnected similar to how a body is made up of many parts. What happens to one person affects another. What one person does ultimately affects another as well.

 

In dealing with the grim circumstance, what I have found to work is for me to move on with my life while holding this person in my heart and prayers, as I have no control of the outcome.  As I continue to live out my purpose, I trust that it will help make other people’s lives better. Also, I trust those in the medical profession to make their patients’ lives hopefully better. If I stopped and moped around, it would not help much, but in fact can make life worse for myself, those around me, and community at large. It’s because what I do can affect the outcome of others that if I stopped doing my part, like a healthy cell no longer functioning as it should, I would actually hinder someone else’s healing. So, a person that causes harm to others is like a cancerous cell that causes the whole body to be sick. I don’t want to be a cancerous cell, but a thriving cell.

 

At some point, even the thriving cell needs a break as what makes a person or cell thrive can include many factors. At some later point, my part can look very different from what my current or perceived purpose is. Obviously, human beings can have multiple purposes/functions in society. To different people, we can fill a different role. I suppose it can be true of certain body parts. For example, with the nose, one smells things, but it is also part of the pulmonary system, a vital part of the body.  Naturally, it is important to take care of one’s body and its parts as it is important to care for one another, whatever your role in your family or circles of connection. Preventative health or preventing evils in society is just as important as treating and curing diseases, fighting criminals, and restoring victims to wholeness. Our goal is to enable those around the world in various sectors to thrive in bringing justice, wholeness, and dignity to every human being.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Juliana Zhu, Esq.

Senior Editor, Culture & Policy