Pink Ribbon Dot Org

A few days ago, I opened my email inbox and saw a ton of email. I've been online since about 1990 but I still get happy to see an inbox full of email (that isn't spam).

Now that it is almost Pink October, there are many companies wanting me to do giveaways in exchange for publicity. One even wants to interview me - on camera.

Aside from being flattered that somebody thinks my blog is popular enough to host giveaways that will help them in some way, I am not sure what to think about this situation.

You already know my conflicted feelings over Pink October. Do I post the giveaways and let my loyal readers have a chance at free goodies? In doing so, will I be furthering the Pink October madness? Will that be selling my soul?

And....do I really care that much?

I'm not sure I do.

I've sort of felt outside of this entire cancer experience anyway, as loyal blog readers will know. I don't feel that it has elevated me, or that I'm part of something special or that it defines me in any way. I'm not in a battle, or even courageous. I have a disease, and pretty much my "battle" is showing up on time to doctor's appointments. It takes a lot more courage to drive on California's freeways than it does to sit in a barcalounger in an infusion room playing Words with Friends for five hours.

Anyway, one of those emails was from a woman, Gayle Sulik, who has her own blog, and who describes herself as a medical sociologist. She wanted to share a post she wrote with me before she uploaded it. Which, I thought, was very nice.

Also very nice was the piece she wrote. I think she captured my bemusement at being drafted into this world of the Pink Ribbon quite nicely, and used my stories to highlight the pressures some of us feel to become part of the Cancer Culture - pressures which are very real. Like any culture, the cancer community has rules and norms and a language of its own. Many women embrace it wholeheartedly. Others, like me, step back a ways, uneasy at being part of a club that they didn't ask to join and frustrated at the rules they are supposed to follow anyway.

She also stole my thunder by posting an article on that old "1 in 8" statistic that I'd been working on. I suggest you head on over there and browse.

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