The Oppenheimer Report 12/7/15

A month or so ago, I spent a couple of hours in the hospital with a friend who went in complaining of respiratory problems. A chronic smoker, he was clearly oxygen-deprived and frightened. He underwent a battery of tests, including a CT scan. The long and the short of it is that he found out last week he has developed lung cancer. I have known this man for about two years, but even in that short period of time, I have grown to respect and admire his many accomplishments. He and I are the same age, and his bad news hit me hard. The next step will be a biopsy and other tests to determine if the cancer has spread and if it is operable. His prognosis is by no means a death sentence, but I can’t imagine what is going through his head right now. This recent diagnosis is just one of the many nagging voices in my head that cries “don’t do this, and don’t do that.” With every peer who falls ill, I become more acutely aware of my own mortality. Of late, and especially with the omnipresent “THEY are out to kill us!” media blitz, it seems that mortality has become my obsession. With every stiff joint or sharp pain comes the little voice asking, “Is this serious, should I be concerned?” Hypochondria has begun to worm its way into my life, and I feel somewhat ashamed about that.
 

Everyone has a cancer story. A cousin of mine in Toronto is a survivor of colon cancer. Before his diagnosis and surgery many years ago, he was a driven, ambitious businessman who spent a lot of time on the road. Now, after several surgeries and a myriad of lifestyle changes, his vocation has become secondary to his family and to his fundraising efforts on behalf of colon cancer research. So far, he has remained healthy, but more importantly, his priorities have changed. I would wager that each day of his “new” life is more valuable to him than months of the life he led before he became ill. I know he is reading this report, as he does every week, and I want him to know his journey and his transformation have been a life lesson and an inspiration to me.

Well over a decade’s worth of these weekly reports have been vacuous nonsense reflecting my cynical, sometimes sarcastic, and often uninformed take on current events. I rant about reality television, self-absorbed and overpaid celebrities, corrupt and inept politicians, bizarre world events, and the general downward spiral of mankind. More often than not, I try to be funny, because humor has been my coping mechanism to process the depressing over-abundance of “information” I reluctantly absorb. My self-indulgent ramblings are a catharsis, and that is what writing has always been for me. What I am only beginning to realize, and perhaps the reason why I have been so uncharacteristically philosophical of late, is that I have become more focused on judging people by their actions, and not their words. In my community alone, I have found many to admire and, dare I say it, love.
 

In the past few weeks, I have been reading about a therapy called tapping, recommended to us by Shauna’s massage therapist, and it is a way of neutralizing stress. Not unlike meditation, tapping is a way of coming to terms with destructive thoughts in order to keep them from harming the body. I think it is helping me cope with my increasing anxiousness. The more I read on the subject, both psychological and physical trauma remain within us long after we think they are gone. The theory is that there are corridors to the brain which, when tapped into, can process and compartmentalize toxic thoughts before they cause us unnecessary and counter-productive pain. The book is called The Tapping Solution if you are curious. In this age of too much information and not enough truth, I seek a remedy to the overwhelming sense of dread I sometimes feel. I won’t apologize for my lack of levity, because this blog is fairly close to who I am. I will likely return to my twisted, gallows humor fiction soon. In the meantime, be good to your friends and family, and I will try to do the same.    - Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED