The Magazine of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America   I
do not fight  Sickness isn't an enemy, it's a rooster's crow
This cancer doesn’t go away. It may lie a long while quietly, a
year, several years—but then it will surely return and reclaim
my attentions, drawing me back to the experiences of this past
year. I will live in the meantime. The Mean-Time is remarkably
short. I realize as much with all the fibers of my being, for it
is precisely these, the fibers in my being, that tell me so.
All the fibers of my being ....  Perhaps that phrase may touch
upon my reasons for refusing to use the imagery of warfare when
speaking of my cancer. I have never construed my tumors as
enemies to me.  No, I don’t judge others who thoughtfully do
choose it, for whom “fighting” may be a helpful stance and
attitude. On the other hand, I’m critical of the media when,
without genuine thought or analysis, it routinely declares in
its death notices that so-and-so died “after a long battle with
cancer.” Why does it have