TIME CAPSULE

I've just committed to writing a blog a day for the next month as part of the Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge (HAWMC) at WEGO Health. Yikes.

Yesterday was Day 1. Since I just joined at the end of today, I'm already two challenges behind. I'd better get cracking!

MY DAY 1 CHALLENGE Imagine a health time capsule that will be opened in 2112. What do you put inside so people who open it in 100 years get a sense of who you are and what health issues you faced?

I would tell the future that in 2012 we were pretty clueless about cancer. That we devoted an entire month each year to the color pink in an attempt to find a cure for breast cancer. That we spent mind-numbing millions and billions buying pretty pink products in pretty pink packaging that made pretty much everyone associated with them plenty of money — but did little to stem the tide of patients diagnosed with (and dying from) the disease. That we were lured into believing that early-stage meant curable. That it took time to understand that cosmetic companies and group walks do not stop cancer's wrath. That it took a long time to figure out how much more productive we could be if we funneled our dollars directly into research and cut out the middle man (and woman). That it took us a really long time before we fully understood how to prevent the disease from forming in the first place. And that it took a really, really long time to find a cure. But we did it.

I really, really hope that last sentence is true.