dfwl--what a brilliant piece of writing! Thanks so much for the link. The piece is called--"I have stage four cancer--there will be no cure, but death isn't necessarily imminent: this is how it feels to live in the long middle"
Janice Chen, from the UK, is the author. She's a psychologist... and a wise, brave, thoughtful woman. And a brilliant writer. Kinda makes it real... like why we are here rather than invested in Nvidia or something. I thought I'd quote a few paragraphs and provide some flavor in the hopes everyone will read the piece in it's entirety:
"When I joined my patient support group, we were a collection of disparate lives tethered by a reluctant masonry. We spoke in bruised shorthand: comparing palliative care, clinical trials and the provisional nature of plans... We began as strangers, yet were quickly bound by a radical intimacy that made conventional friendship feel almost superficial by comparison."
"Fatigue in the long middle is not mere tiredness; it is a heavy, systemic gravity that shortens patience and magnifies anxiety. To manage it, I have had to cultivate an almost clinical coldness – the art of being disagreeable enough to protect my own peace from the well-meaning but exhausting attentions of others. There is a particular invisibility to this existence. Friends assume I am “fine” because I look luminous, unaware of the two hours of horizontal rest required before I can leave the house, or of the mental negotiations required to ensure I have enough breath to finish a sentence."
“I recently attended the funeral of Astrid, a friend who shared my diagnosis… She had used her illness as a form of “clearance” – a license to stop performing. She cultivated “deep time” with friends and celebrated the “non-event” milestones of a stable scan. To refuse to be defined by an illness is not an act of denial; it is a refusal to let medical terminology be the only language spoken in the house of your soul.”
Wow--I got the chills reading her words several times in the piece... the shivers, the heebee-jeebies... But not a hint of pity or milking the situation at all... Just a measured, profound clarity. And a triumphant humanism about a death that is not "just around the corner"... but well within walking distance. Well worth anyone's time. Thanks again dfwl
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/...ong-middle
Janice Chen, from the UK, is the author. She's a psychologist... and a wise, brave, thoughtful woman. And a brilliant writer. Kinda makes it real... like why we are here rather than invested in Nvidia or something. I thought I'd quote a few paragraphs and provide some flavor in the hopes everyone will read the piece in it's entirety:
"When I joined my patient support group, we were a collection of disparate lives tethered by a reluctant masonry. We spoke in bruised shorthand: comparing palliative care, clinical trials and the provisional nature of plans... We began as strangers, yet were quickly bound by a radical intimacy that made conventional friendship feel almost superficial by comparison."
"Fatigue in the long middle is not mere tiredness; it is a heavy, systemic gravity that shortens patience and magnifies anxiety. To manage it, I have had to cultivate an almost clinical coldness – the art of being disagreeable enough to protect my own peace from the well-meaning but exhausting attentions of others. There is a particular invisibility to this existence. Friends assume I am “fine” because I look luminous, unaware of the two hours of horizontal rest required before I can leave the house, or of the mental negotiations required to ensure I have enough breath to finish a sentence."
“I recently attended the funeral of Astrid, a friend who shared my diagnosis… She had used her illness as a form of “clearance” – a license to stop performing. She cultivated “deep time” with friends and celebrated the “non-event” milestones of a stable scan. To refuse to be defined by an illness is not an act of denial; it is a refusal to let medical terminology be the only language spoken in the house of your soul.”
Wow--I got the chills reading her words several times in the piece... the shivers, the heebee-jeebies... But not a hint of pity or milking the situation at all... Just a measured, profound clarity. And a triumphant humanism about a death that is not "just around the corner"... but well within walking distance. Well worth anyone's time. Thanks again dfwl
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/...ong-middle
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