Here is an excerpt from Lance Armstrong's Its not about the bike. It is a book that got me through my week of hell, from diagnosis to treatment and this particular 'bit' rang true for me. The reference can be found at the bottom of this blog.
“The truth is that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know why I got the illness, but it did wonders for me and I wouldn’t wnat to walk away from it. Why would I want to change, even for a day, the most important and shaping event in my life?
People die. The truth is so disheartening that at times I can’t bear to articlate it. Why should we go on, you might ask? Why don’t we all just stop and lie down where we are? But there is another truth, too. People live. It’s and equal and opposing truth. People live, and in the most remarkable ways. When I was sick, I saw more beauty and triumph and truth in a single day than I ever did in a bike race – but they were human moments, not miraculous ones. I met a guy in a fraying sweatsuit who turned out to be a brilliant surgeon. I became friends with a harassed and overscheduled nurse named LaTrice, who gave me such care that it could only be the result of the deepest sympathetic affinity. I saw children with no eyelashes or eyebrows, their hair burned away by chemo, who fought with the hearts of Indurains.
I still don’t completely understand it.
All I can do is tell you what happened.”
Excerpt from Lance Armstrong’s “Its not about the Bike.” with Sally Jenkins - Chapter 1, (p.5) Allen & Unwin : 2002 : USA
