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Steve Martin, the original "Wild and Crazy guy", and a one-time Philosophy major said:

"The thing about philosophy is you learn just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life." 

I think he nailed it there.  But it does make for an interesting ride to the looney bin.

A couple of quotes had been rattling around in my head this weekend.  One was from the book The Journey Through Cancer, which I've been leafing through periodically.  The book is considered, by some, the gold standard for total body awareness and healing for cancer patients.  In the book, the famed physician and chemist Marie Curie is quoted as saying:

"There is nothing in life to be feared.  It is only to be understood."

I really like that quote.  Cancer is clearly something to be feared, as it can ravage your body of its vitality.  Once you reach some sort of an understanding as to what cancer is, and how it operates, that fear may not completely subside, but at least you know what you are up against, and it's not as terrifying.  

That quote brought to mind another saying that I had heard somewhere along the line:

"Life isn't what happens to you.  It's how you react to it." 

I posted that quote on my Facebook page over the weekend and received a few interesting replies. 

James Buchweitz was the first to respond.  He wrote:

"Proactive vs. Reactive..."

I'm not positive, but I think James is referring to the idea that life doesn't happen to you.  You make things happen in your life.  As legendary Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant  used to put it: "Cause something to happen out there!"

I've had the honor and pleasure of covering some of the greatest coaches and athletes of our generation.  I covered the Arkanasas Razorbacks for two seasons, and both seasons culminated in the Hogs advancing to the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament.  They won the National title in '94 and finished 2nd to UCLA in 1995.  Arkansas was coached by Nolan Richardson, who was a joy to cover.  He was a bit of a philosopher himself, and loved to impart his wisdom during his postgame press conferences. 

During the 1995 season, a lot of people called his team 'lucky' for winning so many close games.  Nolan let loose with one of his favorite sayings:

"You have to get yourself in position to get lucky."

What Nolan was saying was that you are going to find yourself in some tight scrapes, but in order to win, you've got to keep the game close, and also spend ample time preparing for how to handle those situations.  Nolan was relentless in practice, drilling his boys on his vaunted "40 minutes of hell" defense, making sure that they were physically and mentally ready to out-execute his opponent in the final two minutes of the game.  They got themselves in position to get lucky, and many times they won, because of their superior talent, conditioning and mental approach to the game.

Sometimes, though,  you don't get lucky.  Sometimes the game-winning jump shot rims out.  Sometimes you are diagnosed with cancer.  That's when life happens to you.  You don't have any say in the matter.  It's how you respond to those setbacks that define your character.

I haven't always responded to setbacks in my life as well as I could have.  I could write a book about all of my missteps, but I won't bore you with that.  About 18 months ago, I was under tremendous stress at work.  Instead of letting issues roll off my back, I tried to fix everything, tried to wrestle my problems into a manageable bundle, and just couldn't get things under control.  I was monumentally stressed out, and I often wonder if that stress contributed to my getting cancer.  There actually may be something to that.  Studies show a large proportion of women diagnosed with breast cancer are convinced that their disease stems from a major life stress. In the book Anticancer, the author, Dr. David Serban Schreiber, writes:

      "...certain reactions to psychological stress can profoundly influence the soil in which the seed (of cancer) develops.  
     Most patients I've known remember a period of a particular kind of stress in the months or years preceding the diagnosis 
     of their cancer.  Usually the stress stems from an ordeal that creates a terrible feeling of helplessness."  

An article published in Nature Reviews Cancer in 2006 stated that these situations don't spark cancer, but they can give it the opportunity to grow.  In retrospect, I probably brought a lot of that stress on myself.  I didn't need to take on so much, or invest so much.  One of my buddies said I simply needed to "stop caring so much."  In that sense, I guess, I could have taken more of a proactive approach to preventing my cancer, but that seems a little bit like Monday Morning quarterbacking. 

The next response on my Facebook page said,

"You can either eat the apple and toss the core and seeds in the trash, or you can plant the seeds and enjoy a mutitude of apples in the future."

Ummmm.  Really?  You can do that?  I usually just buy them at Albertson's.  Philosophically, though, I do see the point.  I think. 

See? This stuff will really screw you up.