The Week That Went

Life is busy – sigh.

Belated link: Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on the coverage of the Edwardses’ story – Elizabeth’s cancer, and John’s continued presidential campaign – from last week. He picked up on the Daily News’ publication of Jane Ridley’s writing on how she felt disturbed about what she thought was the Edwardses’ selfishness. Alter notes:

I’m paid to judge other people, but some things should be beyond judgment. I’d put John and Elizabeth Edwards’s decision to keep campaigning in that category. Anyone who, like me, has had cancer knows this. Tony Snow, whose colon cancer has spread to his liver but who plans to come back to work, gets it. Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, herself a breast-cancer survivor (and, like me, in remission), said as much on the TODAY Show Tuesday. When it comes to cancer, judge not, lest you be judged someday, if you should be so unlucky. [….]

Ridley’s core argument—a fairly common reaction—is that the Edwards’s invocation of service “rings hollow to every mother in the land.” Every mother? This isn’t about ambition trumping love of children and it takes a lot of nerve to suggest that it is. It’s about how to cope with the worst news imaginable. Ridley and the other know-it-alls around the water cooler are essentially telling Elizabeth to give up. “If I had given up everything that my life was about, I’d let cancer win before it needed to,” Elizabeth told Couric. She said she wasn’t ready to “start dying.”

That’s not ego speaking, but a genuine reaction to her predicament. No one can say how you—or anyone else—will react until actually faced with a devastating diagnosis. In my case—and Tony Snow’s, Laura Ingraham’s, Jay Monahan’s (the late husband of Katie Couric) Elizabeth Edward’s and hundreds of thousands of others—the choice was to try to hold onto as much of our old life as humanly possible. Don’t judge that.

I remembered reading the Ridley writing in the Daily News and feeling rather shocked by how – well – visceral? judgmental? – the sentiment was. There are those who have personal misgivings about what the Edwardses are doing, but I’d have to agree: who are we to judge? At most, our duty is to vote on whether Edwards can be president; what about his wife or their kids – well, is it really for us to say? It’s not nearly as simple as we might think, and it’s their decision, so it’s not as if we’re privy to what’s going on in their minds or hearts.

I didn’t think Katie Couric did a bad job with the “60 Minutes” interview, since she asked hard questions (I was more concerned that she’d end up asking softball questions) that had to be asked (and the Edwardses did good jobs answering them, clearly demonstrating that they’re lawyers who prepare, prepare, prepare – not crumple over the hard questions and bravely heading forward – and still came off feeling like human beings who you wouldn’t wish this to happen) and then I was struck by remembering how Couric’s husband had passed away because of cancer and she has her own crusade against cancer. The Edwardses and Couric, and Alter – models of life moving on, putting aside what we may think politically or whatnot. Time’s Swampland blog in March had some great commentary on this topic too, with Jay Carney and Ana Marie Cox discussing what the Edwardses’ actions mean (apologies for not posting the direct links).

And, in light of the condition of White House press man, Tony Snow, and how cancer is something testing our world today, perhaps it’s no surprise that Alter’s experience gets this coming week’s cover of Newsweek – it’s very well-written, I have to say.

Went to the Opening Ceremony of Asian Pacific American Awareness Month (APAAM) at Alma Mater on Wednesday night. Great keynote speaker: Evelyn Hu-DeHart of Brown University, reminding us of the historical struggle of APA in becoming part of America. Entertainment was pretty cool – spoken word by Giles Li, and performance by the student bhangra group. Bhangra? The group was terrific – great enthusiasm, great dancing, and certainly highlighted the diversity of APAs; where were they when I was an undergrad? 😉

Saturday: Of course, putting up with the usual weekend vagaries of MTA subway service into Manhattan. Ah, well – wasn’t so bad, since I got out of Brooklyn way early in the morning (sick, I tell you). Attended Dean’s Day at Alma Mater, where there were (a) free access to Internet at terminals (ah, institutions of higher learning!); (b) terrific lunch (chicken, asparagus; dessert! thanks to some kind of donation or other); and (c) closing reception with even more food. Oh, and lectures from amazing professors on developments of literature, environment, history, etc. I had the good fortune of picking some interesting stuff to attend, I have to say, and the networking was interesting.

Ah, another week ahead.