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When I took the job as Living editor here at the Huffington Post this past July, I did so because I wanted to provide a platform for voices of the voiceless and create a hub of important and meaningful dialogue around issues that affect our inner lives (spirituality, psychology), quality of life (relationships, health), and connection with the world (giving, service).
So it's fitting that my first blog post, after much agonizing over how to introduce myself to you, comes at the beginning of Breast Cancer Month--or as I like to call it Breast Health Month (thank you for that brilliant rewording, Dr. Christiane Northrup!).
As I write I am on a pink Delta airplane on the second half of a round trip flight from New York to Washington, D.C. where, for the first leg of the trip, I was in the midst of 60 hooting and hollering pink-swathed, bodacious, bad ass, beautiful, beautiful, breast cancer survivors--and their queen, Melissa Etheridge (scroll down to watch her perform "I Run For Life" on the flight).
Delta, HardRock, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation partnered up to christen the tower at JFK airport a glowing pink (which it will remain for the entirety of October) and treat Delta's breast cancer survivor flight attendants to a private in-flight concert by the notorious Mrs. E. before delivering them to our nation's Capitol.
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Etheridge told me she used medical marijuana, lymph massage, and acupuncture--as well as chemotherapy during her cancer treatment ("In 10 years we're going to say chemotherapy is the worst, most barbaric thing,"), but also mentioned how breast cancer affected her inner life. "Before cancer I was driven by my desire to succeed, but when I got there it caused me great stress because there was nothing there! Cancer focused me. It made me fall in love with music again. Every moment of life is to find joy. And I am in charge of that. I am in charge of my health, there's no celebrity helpline for that."
It was her message of self-reliance that permeated the evening. "We will not stop not only until there is a cure, but until there's an understanding of what health is in this country," Etheridge said among a sea of cheering pink ladies--and some lads.
J.R. Menendez, 47, a Delta flight attendant from Miami, FL was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 through a routine physical. At first, "It felt surreal, this was a woman's disease, it's not supposed to affect men," he said. Menendez is in remission and has a passionate message for men. "Men: Please, when you go to the doctor, ask him/her to check your chest," he said. "Don't be embarrassed."
But not everyone got his or her diagnosis traditionally. Karen Perry, 46, a Delta flight attendant based in Phoenix, AZ found out she had breast cancer by a fluke. "This sounds silly, but my intuition told me to get a mammogram even though my annual physical was normal," she said. Two lumpectomies (and 11 years) later she is in remission, but is opting to have her left breast removed later this year "so I don't have to be afraid anymore."
Perry told me she helped herself when she was sick by putting herself in a healing state of mind, maintaining a positive mental outlook, and pampering her body. This gave her a general feeling of being well, even though she knew she was sick.
Her advice? "Listen to your body and intuition. Be kind to yourself. We are all responsible for our own health. If you think something's wrong, it probably is. Don't put it off. Get a diagnosis and have your fears dispelled or catch the problem sooner."
Overheard in flight:
Survivor flight attendant #1: "When your hair grew back was it curly?"
Survivor flight attendant #2: "Yes, but then after a few years it straightened out"
Survivor flight attendant #1: "I will never complain about a bad hair day again"
But now the hustle and bustle is over. Now it is quiet. It's just my thoughts and me, and the reverberations of what happened here not even an hour ago.
I am in awe of the strength of the passengers tonight and the pride with which they held their pink carnations and waved them around in celebration. It makes me think about why I said "no thanks" when offered a flower as if in some way I was saying no to breast cancer, politely. Perhaps it holds more meaning for me as my doctor recently found a lump in my left breast that we're "watching".
The evening will stay with me a long time. There is life after a diagnosis. Sometimes it's a woman laughing in a pink wig, sometimes it's the pause and gratitude for a bad hair day, and sometimes it's an empowering song performed over 10,000 feet in the clouds.
Melissa, thank you for inspiring us all. This post is for you.
Let's all keep running for life!
Follow Alana B. Elias Kornfeld on Twitter: www.twitter.com/alanaekornfeld
Click to Give @ The Breast Cancer Site
Delta goes pink for Breast Cancer Month - Atlanta Business Chronicle:
WebMD Breast Cancer Center: Types, Symptoms, Causes, Genes ...
Breast cancer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
October is Breast Cancer awareness month
Vail Valley: Get pampered, support breast cancer research
Video: Anesthesia During Breast Cancer Surgery
Pink Out Breast Cancer event set at Weldon Valley
The Ultimate Health Care Solution, and What You Can and Must Do
congratulations on your first post and thanks for your vision for the job / calling as HuffPost Living editor.
And I say YES to Breast Health! My mother died of advanced breast cancer at 63 two weeks after diagnosis. She had never ever been to a screening or early detection program.
And YES to Prostate Health, yes to HEALTH, period!
None of us find this a reason to celebrate!!!
Someone please amend that headline to celebrating breast cancer awareness, PLEASE!!!
It's all year long, where ever you turn. I don't want to buy a KitchenAid mixer in pink or a potato peeler in pink or beef jerky in a pink wrapper. STOP WITH THE PINK STUFF ALREADY!!
What the focus of the campaign should now be is how to get all the chemicals that poison our bodies out of the corporate food chain so that we can PREVENT breast cancer and get the price of a mammogram down to a reasonable amount.
Or better yet, develop a less painful technique, other than a mammography machine, to check for breast cancer.
I for one will boycott any merchandise that arrives on the store shelf in pink.
You took a good marketing concept and pushed it a bit too far.
I appreciate the intentions...I just wish there was someway to share the love and wealth that breast cancer is getting with other cancers.
very well said.
What a great and inspiring inaugural post! I look forward to more! Great photos and video also. I'm with you on the "Breast Health Awareness" idea. Several years ago, several colleagues and myself put together a retreat for women called the Breast Health Symposium, specifically to focus on learning how to promote health of our breasts and our entire body, mind, spirit. It was great to see women supporting women in such a positive way.
Patricia
Thank you for sharing such an incredible experience with us. ... I was right there with you in that plane, and it makes me love Melissa Ethridge even more.
I am now at an age, in my 40's where more and more friends are 'getting diagnosed.' It is so frightening to watch friends you love go through it, and makes every woman scared she might be next.
I just read that breast cancer cases have actually declined slightly, thanks to new treatments and detections. And awareness. The girl's are lighting it up PINK this year like never before.
Beautiful post.
Kari
And I absolutely loathe the corporate connection - how these big companies use breast cancer awareness as a means to sell their (often toxic) products to women.
What happens is that the extra light fools your body into not producing enough melatonin which inhibits cancer.
Congrats on your first blog too!
Blessings,
Judith