Get your eyes ready for the show. In just a few days October will begin, and with it will come a bonanza of pink. Everywhere you look you will find pink candies, pink tennis rackets, pink t-shirts, pink phone covers, pink cakes, pink pink PINK in every corner.
If you wanted to have an entire day of pink, I bet you could do it from your shoelaces to your after dinner dessert.
I appreciate the good intentions like the walks that raise money for breast cancer research and the flyers that get passed around teaching you how to do a self breast exam properly. I do not appreciate the feeling that the month has become like another overcommercialized holiday, pink pouring out of the shelves at your local store. What percentage of profit of that pink tennis racket will truly go toward research for the cure or better treatment for breast cancer patients? I fear these products are just another marketing ploy.
My mom passed away 11 years ago. Writing that here, 11 years after it happened, still makes the tears flow and the pain explode from my heart where it?s been chained up. She had stage IV metastatic breast cancer, diagnosed at age 39. She died at 42. I have such clear memories of her going through her sickness, and for a long time those memories clouded the rest. I couldn?t remember her voice for years, but I could remember the moment she told me she was sick. For what feels like forever the memories of sitting on her lap with her pale arms around me were gone, but I remembered putting on a mask and gloves to enter her hospital room for a visit on her 40th birthday.
Maybe I?m just cynical or having a bad day, but I hate Breast Cancer Awareness Month and what it represents these days. Instead of buying pink foil-wrapped candies, why don?t we make a donation straight to a research foundation? We don?t need pink products to help the cause. We need direct action. We need to support the women around us ? we all know someone who is affected by breast cancer, whether directly or indirectly. We need to do our own breast exams on a timely schedule and take care of ourselves. I don?t need a pair of pink striped yoga pants to remind me of any of that.
I hope I don?t offend anyone by sharing this. I think breast cancer awareness is really important, but I don?t like the way it?s being done right now. It just seems like another way for these large companies to turn a profit. ?How do you feel about it all?
Sabrina, of?RhodeyGirl Tests, had her first boy in September 2011 with her husband Trig. At the time of this post Raffi was 11 months old. You can read other related posts on?her blog.
Photo credit ? WishUponACupcake / Flickr
Source: http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-i-hate-breast-cancer-awareness-month/
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