A good friend . . .

. . . of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. Like so many others, it began with a persistent pain in one place, source of which could not be identified. When it finally was identified, the cancer had metastasized to the lungs. In any case, this person is responding well to chemotherapy at this writing.

At the workplace of my friend, the staff has decided to hold a 'raffle' to assist with medical expenses. Tickets are $1.00 each, or 6 tickets for $5.00. Prizes of 1st place $250, 2nd $100 and 3rd $50 will be distributed with the remainder going to my friend. The explanatory memo concluded with, "Please be as generous as you can, and be reminded that, there but for the grace of God go you or I."

The tribal closing remark infuriated me. It implies to me that there is a 'God' who chose my friend to inflict cancer (punishment?) upon. And this 'God', in 'his' infinite wisdom and choice of my friend is 'merciful'(???) in NOT inflicting it upon ME and the author of the memo??? What could my good friend have done to piss this 'God' off so royally? Is this a 'God' of which YOU would want to have any part??? A theistic ‘God’ possessing such worthless ‘grace’, to me simply does not exist.

I prefer the consciousness of thinkers such as John Shelby Spong, Ernest Holmes, John A.T. Robinson and other more intellectually discriminating folks who view 'God' not as a theistic "man with a beard on a throne in a heaven", but instead as the ground of all being. This view of ‘God', though unbeknownst to the author of the 'raffle' memo, is precisely the thing that prompts her to help our friend in the first place. I can only wish that we didn't resort to primitive, tribal cliches in matters of life, death and God.




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If only. . .

. . . or should I ask "when only"?

The New York Times
Sept. 13, 2011
". . . A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose.

Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells — a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors — and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig’s veins.

At first, nothing happened. But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.

A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

A number of research groups have been trying to do this, but the T-cells they engineered could not accomplish all the tasks. As a result, the cells’ ability to fight tumors has generally been temporary.

The University of Pennsylvania team seems to have hit all the targets at once. Inside the patients, the T-cells modified by the researchers multiplied to 1,000 to 10,000 times the number infused, wiped out the cancer and then gradually diminished, leaving a population of “memory” cells that can quickly proliferate again if needed.

The researchers said they were not sure which parts of their strategy made it work — special cell-culturing techniques, the use of H.I.V.-1 to carry new genes into the T-cells, or the particular pieces of DNA that they selected to reprogram the T-cells. . ."

Hell of a thing, don't you think?!





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