Welcome to day four of Just Jot It January for 2023. Today’s word is cancer.
When I joined the Air Force, I went to tech school in Wichita Falls, Texas at Sheppard AFB. It was so wonderful to be out of basic training and living more like an adult on my own. I had already enlisted before my mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis and Uncle Sam does not allow take backsies so I was committed. It was a hard time for our family and being away from home was not easy. One of the things that made it easier was the fact my mother was so proud of me.
Things were not exactly high tech in 1972. At least not where personal music was involved. I often found myself at the library. There I could get a set of those huge over-the-ear headphones and check out records to listen to. There were four or five record players on a long table, each with attached headphones. My favorite album was Simon and Garfunkle’s Greatest Hits album, and my favorite song “The Sound of Silence”. The phrase “…silence like a cancer grows…” always felt like an affront to me and what my mother was experiencing. It always brought me to tears – and maybe I needed that trigger.
Hopefully with life and experience, we grow and learn. Now that line is a reminder to encourage us to be vocal in our support of those going through cancer. Silence can be deafening.
This CD is one of the few I kept. It is in my CD player in my car and I still listen to it frequently. That song is still a favorite, but it no longer makes me cry. Now, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”? Well, that is a totally different story for another place and time.
Written as part of Linda Hill’s JusJoJan.
Prompt word today (cancer) submitted by Lauren from Attitude of Gratitude.
fromcavewalls.wordpress.com 