I once read what I now consider to be one of the most moving books in my nineteen years of existing. It is honest, raw, implausible, unfair and most importantly, incomplete in the most lucid form of wholesome beauty. This book left a void in my heart that won't be easy to fill with the comparably superficial words of any other pages.
A surgeon wrote about his own unfortunate confrontation with cancer. He wrote about what it is like experiencing both sides of the operating room. How it feels to be on top of the world before having it stripped from right beneath you. He has experienced both a sense of omnipotence, yet also brutal desperateness. His lips would voice the countless diagnosis’ of his myriad of patients and yet his ears heard the familiar words through the lips of another. His fingertips worked hard to finish the piece of art that made millions, including myself, re-evaluate everything that is important in life.
His words describe the depth of life's meaning -- both before and after the diagnoses. The weaker he gradually became, the more strength his words bared. His seemingly perfect, heroic self-image shined throughout the book. The cancer was his impending flaw. He wrote, however, to empower those who still confront their mortality. It isn’t about how long you live but rather how you live. He wrote, "Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when.”
This book, with an ordinarily sized perimeter, has an unmatchable area. It sends a cascade of signals throughout your body. It turns your emotional feelings into momentary, physical signs of discomfort by the time you reach the last page, which was written by his lovely wife, who aspired to create a culmination to his unfinished, brutally honest masterpiece. It is numbing. It is beautiful. It is real. It is disgustingly unfair. It is a life. It is when breath becomes air.
I recommend everyone to spend their Thanksgiving break reading this book. We have a lot to be thankful for.
