My talk from today's worship service posted on my expressions page

TraciInLA
TraciInLA Member Posts: 1,994 Member
in Breast Cancer #1
You may remember my telling you all a few weeks ago that our minister and I were offering a Sunday worship service honoring everyone whose lives have been touched by cancer, and to talk about how this month of pink ribbon mania feels to survivors of other forms of cancer.

Our “Surviving October” service was this morning, and was inspiring and moving. I've posted my talk from the service on my expressions page, as well as a couple of photos of our "Tree of Life" -- during the service, anyone who wished to was invited to put a lavender ribbon (representing all cancers) on the tree to honor themselves or a loved one.

One very funny thing happened: We decided to use the artificial Christmas tree for the ribbon ritual (because where else are you gonna get a tree?), and I had decorated it with some lavender flowers, to try to get across the point that this isn't a Christmas tree right now. But I guess the flowers weren't very visible from the back of the church, where folks enter –- so there was a steady stream of people coming in mad as h*ll: “WHAT IS A CHRISTMAS TREE DOING HERE ALREADY?!?” “IT’S NOT EVEN HALLOWEEN YET!” “THIS IS TERRIBLE, WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?!”

For heaven’s sakes, calm down, people! Look at your order of service, where it says “Tree of Life,” and just wait for it! :-)

:-) Traci

Comments

  • Bella Luna
    Bella Luna Member Posts: 1,578 Member
    #2
    Good going, Tracie! I read
    Good going, Tracie! I read your speech. Congratulations on a job well done!
  • linpsu
    linpsu Member Posts: 747
    #3
    Good job!
    Your speech was great! Kudos to you for a job well done!
    Hugs,
    Linda
  • fauxma
    fauxma Member Posts: 3,577 Member
    #4
    linpsu said:

    Good job!
    Your speech was great! Kudos to you for a job well done!
    Hugs,
    Linda

    Great job, Traci. I guess
    Great job, Traci. I guess that some of the congregation should have had a leap of faith instead of leaping to conclusions. It was a beautiful tree and a wonderful idea.
    Kudos to you and your minister.
  • lynn1950
    lynn1950 Member Posts: 2,570
    #5
    What needs to be said very
    What needs to be said very nicely stated.
  • VickiSam
    VickiSam Member Posts: 9,079 Member
    #6
    lynn1950 said:

    What needs to be said very
    What needs to be said very nicely stated.

    KUDOS - Traci!
    so powerful, and true!


    Vicki Sam
  • missrenee
    missrenee Member Posts: 2,136 Member
    #7
    VickiSam said:

    KUDOS - Traci!
    so powerful, and true!


    Vicki Sam

    Great talk, Traci
    and so true. I found myself nodding my head and saying, "Yup" to your comments. There is nothing so pretty about breast cancer that it should be wrapped up in a pretty pink ribbon. It is ugly, vile and wicked--just as all the other cancers. Unfortunately, I feel most companies jump on the bandwagon to boost their profit margins. I totally stopped supporting a very, very well-known breast cancer "non-profit" when I learned their CEO received a yearly mid-six figure salary--what?! Ridiculous.

    Anyway, thanks for spreading some real words of help and encouragement.

    Hugs, Renee
  • TraciInLA
    TraciInLA Member Posts: 1,994 Member
    #8
    missrenee said:

    Great talk, Traci
    and so true. I found myself nodding my head and saying, "Yup" to your comments. There is nothing so pretty about breast cancer that it should be wrapped up in a pretty pink ribbon. It is ugly, vile and wicked--just as all the other cancers. Unfortunately, I feel most companies jump on the bandwagon to boost their profit margins. I totally stopped supporting a very, very well-known breast cancer "non-profit" when I learned their CEO received a yearly mid-six figure salary--what?! Ridiculous.

    Anyway, thanks for spreading some real words of help and encouragement.

    Hugs, Renee

    ...the same CEO who now looks as though she's had as many facelifts as Joan Rivers? I've been wondering where the money for all that cosmetic surgery came from....>:-(

    Traci
  • Gabe N Abby Mom
    Gabe N Abby Mom Member Posts: 2,413
    #9
    Well done Traci!!!

    Well done Traci!!!
  • abrub
    abrub Member Posts: 2,174 Member
    #10
    Thank you.
    We rare cancer survivors (mine was Appendix Cancer) are particularly lonely. You spoke on behalf of everyone.

    Thank you.

    Alice
  • Double Whammy
    Double Whammy Member Posts: 2,832 Member
    #11
    abrub said:

    Thank you.
    We rare cancer survivors (mine was Appendix Cancer) are particularly lonely. You spoke on behalf of everyone.

    Thank you.

    Alice

    Superb!
    Thank you for expressing this so eloquently. I hope more from the other boards access this talk.

    You done good. .
    Suzanne
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    #12
    Double Whammy said:

    Superb!
    Thank you for expressing this so eloquently. I hope more from the other boards access this talk.

    You done good. .
    Suzanne

    Should be Posted
    I wish that TraciINLA would make it into a Post. If ever a discussion board needed it, this one does!

    Doris
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    #13
    TraciInLA said:

    ...the same CEO who now looks as though she's had as many facelifts as Joan Rivers? I've been wondering where the money for all that cosmetic surgery came from....>:-(

    Traci

    Passing Thoughts!
    Your Talk was excellent! Your tree was very nice - like the color of the ribbons!

    I was able to edit my comments about Nancy Brinker so I am. I realize that I knew very little about this lady. I did an interlibrary loan for her book "Promise Me: How a sister's love launched the global movement to end breast cancer". Her sister's children were not part of the SGK as their father did not want them to be "Poster Child" for the organization. He is a very private person. Susan's children and grandchildren do have a good relationship with their aunt, according to the book. I think if that wasn't so, we would have heard about it.

    My opinion of Nancy has changed. I have always gave Nancy credit for taking breast cancer out of the closet and tying a pink bow around it. I said she must have hired a great marketing person when she learned that the cure were years away. Nancy is great at marketing that is what she was doing before her sister was diagnose with breast cancer. She didn't have to look for such a person, she is a great marketing person.

    I found this interesting which was pretty much at the end of the book page 312


    “If I have seen further than others,” said Sir Isaac Newton, “it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

    We at SGK gratefully stood on the shoulders of giants, and we hope others will stand on ours.

    Perhaps this will be where METAVIVOR comes in .... with the cure for Stage IV.

    Nancy did fulfill her sister's wishes, "to do something with the waiting rooms and etc.". I thought the same thing when I was having a lot of surgeries. Why were the surgical rooms painted a seasick green instead of a sun colored room in yellow. It certainly would of help. I understand were her pink came in as it was the sister's favorite color and she was that kind of a girl.

    Nancy does have good oncologist helping out in the scientific end of it. I am an admirer of two of them.

    If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.

    Best,

    Doris

    PS: Nancy does address the reason in what happened to the other cancers that you addressed in your sermon. It has to do with the "myth of the magic bullet" that was to cure all cancers back in the 1970's.
    My post to you made me want to learn more about how it all began and I needed to learn more about it. I am so glad that I was able to rewrite my remarks that were in my opinion were catty. I still wish you would post the sermon. It was very, very good.
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    #14
    missrenee said:

    Great talk, Traci
    and so true. I found myself nodding my head and saying, "Yup" to your comments. There is nothing so pretty about breast cancer that it should be wrapped up in a pretty pink ribbon. It is ugly, vile and wicked--just as all the other cancers. Unfortunately, I feel most companies jump on the bandwagon to boost their profit margins. I totally stopped supporting a very, very well-known breast cancer "non-profit" when I learned their CEO received a yearly mid-six figure salary--what?! Ridiculous.

    Anyway, thanks for spreading some real words of help and encouragement.

    Hugs, Renee

    Agree with you Renee
    I agree with you, Renee 100%.

    When Nancy Brinker began her SGK organization she learned that in the same 10 year period that we lost 58,000 men in Vietnam, 339,000 men and women lost their life to breast cancer. There is no wall with their names on it. If we were to make a wall today listing the 40,000 men and women who lost their life last year, this year, and on and on, would we have a cure sooner?

    I was surprise at the statistics. Now I do admire Nancy and the cause she promoted when no one talked about the disease. We are all aware now and it's time for their money to go into research. I have read that awareness receives more money than research grant do. Time to change that fact I would think.

    Doris

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