Today a message popped in my email. It was a message of thanks for flowers and money we sent, from someone who recently discovered she was losing a battle against cancer.
I've always been especially sensitive, or attuned, to two things: body language and the written word. Not for nothing do I like to write and read, not for nothing did I study translation. I find the choice of words, the message sent by a written note, (both consciously and unconsciously), very revealing.
This woman wrote (my translation): "I intend to fight this dreadful enemy till the end because you just can't let down the people you love." There were subtleties I can't convey. She actually said "it's just not done to let down the people you love". Her choice of words, in French, was like it would be bad taste to do that. Inappropriate. Uncouth. Not proper. Can't possibly.
I never saw fighting a disease as a courtesy to anybody. It surprised me a little. But I've never been in this situation. Yet.
And when the end comes, doing what will be the most comforting to your loved ones makes a lot of sense after all.
Notice how I try to keep an emotional distance by analyzing her words? A classic defense mechanism called intellectualization.
May God look after you D****, now and later.
No comments:
Post a Comment