Tricky Tricky Cancer

After a recent cancer scare, my thoughts turn once more (as they so often do) to tricksterly things. I'm sure that thinking of cancer as a trickster entity is neither new, nor a stretch. Tricksters are more often referred to as "virulent" but the more we learn about cancer the more links we see to viruses. The ways that a disease -- whether cancer or virus -- can outwit the body's own immune system gives us pause and opportunity to contemplate the nature of myth, the ways that ancient peoples (and modern) find to account for the unthinkable, the unbearable. Our stories are more scientific now, to be sure, but we continue to be cleverly outdone by illnesses that take our loved ones from us in inexplicable ways. Trickster is, after all, the mediator between life and death, the one who crosses between decay and growth, hope and despair, love and loss. I'm just grateful that, for the time being at least, I will not be requiring the trickster tradition of deathbed humor. It's all about survival after all.