Friday, October 5, 2007
LISA'S LESSON
Lisa Moore died Thursday after a long battle with breast cancer.Lisa's not real, mind you. She was a character in the Funky Winkerbean comic strip, though there was little comic about the story line.
Funky creator Tom Batiuk took some fire for making the funnies so unfunny, but it's not as if Judge Parker or Rex Morgan are knee-slappers, either.
Batiuk himself is a cancer survivor. He used his strip to educate his readers about cancer, and about life and death.
Having dealt first-hand with the ravages of cancer in my family and close friends since I was 15, (let's see...bone, esophagus, lung, colon and liver...I know 'em all) I know it's a lesson worth learning and worth repeating.
If Batiuk convinced a single person to do self-exams or get annual physicals, taking the fun out of the funnies was worth it.
There are excellent doctors and nurses who can help us, but we have to be smart enough to help ourselves first.
Please be smart enough.
(By the way, I know what you're thinking. "Gerry, you read the comics?"
Why yes, I do. All the way from Doonesbury to Gil Thorp. And I'm really concerned that Gil's football team may go winless this season.)
Posted at 12:18 AM by Gerry
10 Comments:
Believe me, to those of us who know and yes, love you, it comes as no surprise that you read the comics. What you failed to tell us is what order you read the paper in. Comics first and then the sports?
Life section (to wake up)...business...then the front section, Connecticut section and sports. Sometimes I save sports for lunch.
On Mondays, when the paper is a pamphlet, the whole thing takes about 2 minutes.
You've had cancer in your family. So have I. So has EVERY OTHER FAMILY.
Having cancer is not dramatic or unusual, and it doesn’t make one a tragic figure. Cancer is COMMON. ONE THIRD of the population gets cancer at some point. One of us will probably get it. It’ll be hard enough to deal with when it’s real. Don’t depress us by making up stories about it. SHEESH. Thank goodness the chick finally died.
I'm so sorry I depressed you.
Gee, if we were together right now, I'd tell you a joke to cheer you up!
Oh wait, sorry. You ARE a joke.
Good one, Gerry,
Linda
The joke here is that you are buying into the falsehood that promoting self-exams have ANYTHING to do with cancer survivability.
Survivability is simply the number of years between diagnosis and death.
All self-examination does is let you know that you have cancer at an EARLIER STAGE, thus you simply are considered a cancer patient for a longer time before you die. It has absolutely NO effect on eventual mortality. Read some studies, pal.
Hey xx...
I'm sorry for whatever happened that made you as miserable and bitter as you are.
It must have been pretty bad.
It's always justified to express disdain and annoyance for people who think they are special and live some kind of dramatic, tragic life just because they know somebody with cancer or some other common disease. In 25 years of the "War on Cancer", death rates have not declined AT ALL. This disease will be with us forever and we might as well get over it.
Well said, my friend. I lost a sister, way too young, to that dreaded disease.
On another note, somewhat trivial (not!!), did you see the "MAGIC MANNY MISSLE MOMENT?" I thought of you when that ball was launched with the power of...well, I don't really know. It's Sunday morning at 8:24am, and I THINK it's landed by now.
Enjoy 3:07PM baseball on TBS-HD, newly added to Comcast (on Monday), to ch. 198. It's a beautiful thing. And so are our SOX. TRIPLE sevens....3:07 on 10/07/07...there's luck there!
xx...
The only thing you're right about is that cancer will be with us forever.
Other than that, you lost me.
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