I read from my book last night to a group at the Women's Cancer Resource Center in Oakland. It's independent, and sponsors many groups and events, with a feminist/progressive philosophy. For those of you who shy away from the word feminist, take note: I don't mean that they push ideology, but that they aim to be inclusive. We were talking about Thinking Before You Pink, and the exec director said that the center receives funds from the Avon Walk, which goes to show that the mainstream breast cancer philanthropies are becoming more responsive to grass-roots organizations, and are not so wedded to the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about after making his contributions to it.
Several of the women told their stories and we talked about alternative treatment as well as the politics and emotions of breast cancer.
Before that, I spoke to a class on healing stories at John F. Kennedy University in Contra Costa County. I find I'm speaking more and more about the benefits and uses of humor in living through cancer. You can hear a lecture on this by Enid Schwartz here. You can find my piece on humor in breast cancer narratives on the Jan. 19, 2009, post on this blog.
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