Zooming Out Provides Perspective!

by Rick Davis | Aug 23, 2020 | Cancer Resources, Cancer Caregivers, Health Resources, Maui, Men 'Speaking Freely', Prostate Cancer, Recent News

Peter Kafka’s musing this week are born in Maui amd quicky emanate to encompass medical and natural challenges all the way to the mainland. (rd)

Sometimes I feel like I have my hand on a “Mouse” and I am continually zooming in and out, changing perspective on my own issues and those of much larger pictures.  I could easily focus in on my own challenges and the fact that our local hospital appears to be in the midst of a second serious Covid-19 outbreak effecting some two dozen patients and an equal number of staff this time around.  Normally I would not care too much, but since this is our only community hospital and I need to access it on a regular basis for my own treatment protocol it puts me in an awkward position.

But when I zoom out a bit, I can easily be more concerned about the city and count of Honolulu on Oahu where one of the most rapid and significant increases in Covid-19 infection rates in the US is occurring at present.  But then I expand my vision a bit and cross the Pacific and note that the many residents of the Western states, and most particularly California are in the midst of a second serious thereat to life and livelihood, the extreme heat and wildfire season.

Normally I could say that these fires are too far away from me to matter.  But a very good friend of mine who I met 4-years ago at UCSF while doing radiation for our respective prostate cancers, lives smack dab in the middle of what is now one of the largest fires in California history.  When I spoke to, he and his wife earlier in the week they had reported that their house was standing at that time, but that the fire was igniting some other structures on their property.  I don’t have an update, but when I search Google Maps, I can follow their road up the mountain and see that they are indeed surrounded by fire.

I zoom out a bit further and see that we are in the midst of hurricane season, that our country has yet to adequately manage this pandemic and we lead the world in terms of disease and deaths.  Then further afield there are many parts of the world suffering from financial ruin and food shortages on top of everything.  And then the ultimate click of the mouse greeted me this morning to warn of a 0.5 percent chance of our Earth being hit by an asteroid on the day before election day in November!

All this kind of helps me see that my little struggle with Prostate Cancer is not the center of the universe.  I think it is helpful to zoom out to the bigger picture from time to time and keep perspective.  One of the reasons I stay so engaged with our AnCan virtual online support meetings is to remember that others have significant issues and concerns that need attention and that I am big enough to step outside and beyond my little world and help another.