I recently took my wife and some RUF students to a dance on campus. My wife was my date. We'd been looking for one to attend so we could shake it, and don't want to go through all the hoops and hollers to put on a dance ourselves.
We found the Breast Cancer Awareness dance. So I harassed the boys into getting dates (why is this so difficult?), and we started off with a nice Italian meal in Othello's Tiger Room. One of our discussion points was to answer this question: What would you have in your dream house?
One said an endless chocolate fountain (we pointed out this would have to be manned by servants). Another wanted a lazy river in his house, particularly the kitchen so he could float around and make dinner at the same time. Several people wanted elaborate libraries, and one said he would like to own every copy of every book in the world.
I had two I thought possible requests. The first thing I'd like in my dream house is one of those milk dispensers they have in the dorm cafeterias. The ones with the bags of milk, the spigots of coolness, the seemingly constant supply of milk. Yum.
The second is a urinal. I think houses should just come with them if there is more than one male living there. It would make things so much easier for everyone. I'd take either floor length or the squatty ones - I'm not picky. I think both of these dreams are possible someday.
We finally made it to the dance. I paid $40 for my wife and me to get in (they had a chocolate fountain there - not endless as far as I knew).
Then I was thinking - this is for Breast Cancer Awareness? Why not for actually fighting breast cancer? I'm not sure exactly what my money went for. More ads? More pink ribbons? More pink boxes of women's cereal?
I feel pretty aware of Breast Cancer. I think I know what it is. I think I get it. It's not a good thing. I'm wondering how I could be any more aware unless someone close to me had it and I thus had immediate experiences with it. But my general awareness quotient feels pretty high. Could it go higher?
Powerpoint slides flashed at the dance. Not of breasts with cancer, but with statistics that I suppose raised our awareness. The only one that I remember was this: Women under 5'2" are more likely to get breast cancer than women over 5'2".
How might that information help me or anyone else? Pray for taller daughters? However, my awareness is trivially heightened by this, I suppose.
I thought they should consider mammogram booths set up in the back for checks. I thought they should bring in a scientist who could be working to stop breast cancer and each dollar we gave him made him work even harder.
I'm not laughing at breast cancer. I'm against that. I would like to eradicate it and want my dollars to fight it.
But an awareness dance? I guess we'll see what they do with my $40. So far, it hasn't been worth it to me, but I may be too distracted by the music.
My wife later told me I will not be involved in the plans of our house if we ever build one.
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Excellent points raised and
Tue, 04/01/2008 - 07:00 — Andrea (not verified)Excellent points raised and as the wife of a colorectal cancer survivor and someone who has previously been employed in the cancer world, you echo the sentiments of many, many families who have been affected by cancers other than breast cancer. For all of the feel-good vibes buying a pink pancake spatula evokes, very little is actually done for breast cancer. I won't get into the challenges of mammograms being offered at the dance but another option would be to have a fund on campus for children of breast cancer survivors (or better yet, all cancer survivors) who need financial assistance. The financial implications of a cancer diagnosis do not end when treatment does and I can attest to the fact that our family will be playing catch up for years to come. Perhaps these discussions are best suited for another post but you are on to something here and brave to voice, in public, what millions of people feel each time we see a pink mixer, vacuum, corn butterer....