Why Not Us?

I was in the hair stylists’ chair several weeks ago, reading slightly outdated gossip rags as I waited for my color to set.  There was an O magazine in the pile, and that is how I stumbled across an interview with Diablo Cody, screenwriter of Juno.  I really enjoyed that movie, and she is really adorable!

There were some very positive sayings that I felt were definitely worth sharing.  Women, especially when we’re young and are new to the continuous emotional battle with our bodies and our self esteem, fall easily into despair.  Developing something so mysterious and unique as male-pattern hair growth singles us out further.  We can’t trust our friends, our parents have an even harder time understanding this challenge, and sometimes our doctors will even shrug it off.  It truly seems like there is no one in the whole world like us.  But here’s what a teacher with cancer said to Cody:

“’I never waste time asking myself, “Why me?”  Instead I ask, “Well, why not me?”’”

Cody adds: “...Rather than being a statement of resignation, I think of it more as a battle cry: ‘I am not my circumstances.’ ...  I could choose to feel like a martyr, but instead I think, ‘You are not the first and only person in the world who has had to do this.’”

Chew that over for a while.  I did, and I knew immediately who I wanted to share this with: all of you.  Because I’m not the only one.  And neither are you.  We’re all in this together, and we can take it.



Read the full interview:  http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Diablo-Cody-Interview-Dealing-with-Loss-and-Pain

The C-Word

Holy hole-in-a-doughnut, guys, comment explosion on the blog this week!  I love it!

Visitors, if you're just reading my blog posts and not the comments, you're missing out on the expressions of other women like me.  Don't worry--I screen all the comments before they ever appear to the public, so there will never be anything hateful there.

I've known what I wanted to post all week this week; I don't know why it's taken me so long to post it.  A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with appendix cancer that has metastasized, claiming one ovary among other things.  This week, I simply want to boost the signal for the blog she's started to share her experiences.  It may not be relevant to any of you, but like this blog, it might be a relief for anyone going through it or something similar.

Beating Jelly Belly (Pseudomyxoma Peritonei)

Cancer will touch us all eventually.  For me, it used to be something far away that claimed this person or that person so long ago that I could hardly remember it.  It's been touching my life quite a bit lately, to the point where it's sometimes all I can think about.  But when the strong reactionary emotions fade, you still have to face it and find a way to deal, like everything else that happens in life.  This is how she's dealing.  In that way, our blogs are quite similar indeed.