Oh, my aching knees, ankles, and hip joints.
Now that October (a.k.a. Breast Cancer Awareness Month) is over, I can ask: is there some kind of event horizon of awareness? Some sort of diminishing return? Because, honestly, I think I've reached it. Okay. Breast cancer. Got it.
Please do not take this to mean disrespect to anyone who has had breast cancer or has lost someone close to them to the disease. In all weird honesty, when I was nine or so I saw a commercial (likely aimed at awareness) about how 25% of American women would at some point have breast cancer and sort of concluded that I probably would eventually get it. I walked around for years assuming it was an inevitability. Now, having acquired information about my family history and a slightly better understanding of statistics, I no longer believe that it's inevitable. But still wouldn't be surprised if it eventually happened to me.
However, to paraphrase a grumpy editorial on Salon I read about a year ago, companies slapping pink ribbons on everything and hiking up the price a bit, then giving the extra profit to various foundations isn't probably the most effective solution to the problem. As the editorial pointed out, it's a hell of a lot easier to focus on early detection and cure-seeking than on what we might be doing to our environment that increases the incidence of cancer.
The more I think about it, the more instances I can find where we as a culture go full-tilt toward a solution without pausing to think about the cause of the problem.
Please do not take this to mean disrespect to anyone who has had breast cancer or has lost someone close to them to the disease. In all weird honesty, when I was nine or so I saw a commercial (likely aimed at awareness) about how 25% of American women would at some point have breast cancer and sort of concluded that I probably would eventually get it. I walked around for years assuming it was an inevitability. Now, having acquired information about my family history and a slightly better understanding of statistics, I no longer believe that it's inevitable. But still wouldn't be surprised if it eventually happened to me.
However, to paraphrase a grumpy editorial on Salon I read about a year ago, companies slapping pink ribbons on everything and hiking up the price a bit, then giving the extra profit to various foundations isn't probably the most effective solution to the problem. As the editorial pointed out, it's a hell of a lot easier to focus on early detection and cure-seeking than on what we might be doing to our environment that increases the incidence of cancer.
The more I think about it, the more instances I can find where we as a culture go full-tilt toward a solution without pausing to think about the cause of the problem.
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