DJHJD

DJHJD

Thursday, December 10, 2009

It ain't necessarily so ..

A friend recently was told by someone at a medical office that she had lumps in her breast that needed to be examined more closely. The appointment to have her charts and scans read took two months - at which time they told her that she had some fibroids that needed to be watched. Her results were a huge relief, of course, but this has been the fourth time THIS YEAR that a woman friend of mine was told by a clinician that she may have breast cancer and was left to stew in her own juices until the doctor picked up the charts and scans and reported "you don't have cancer". Several of these women have had to have biopsies. Each of them was put through months of internalized panic and stress to be told "oh, those are just fibroids. Perfectly normal for your age."

There are so many things in life that "ain't necessarily so". Someone's motivations, someone's internal monologue, someone's past - what something "means".

To be human is to focus nearly exclusively on what everything means. What words mean, events, weather, career paths, relationship developments. What does it MEAN? Depending on one's background, training and openness, this meaning can be attributed to one's own failings, to vague feelings that someone is out to get you, to feelings that God is out to get you.

The problem with that is - when everyone is trying to figure out what it "means" without listening, asking or observing - you have nothing but self-guided "certainty" with no real information.

All of life is complex, involving many independent parts, all of which collide depending on timing, order, temperature.. so many variables that it's impossible to know just what things "mean".

Just remember - it ain't necessarily so. Could be different. If you don't like how it looks, be open to seeing it differently.

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