The below was posted at the Celebrate Crushing Cancer contra dance held November 17, 2023, at the Greenwood, VA, community center.
CONTRA DANCE FOR HEALTH AND FUN
Thank you health care workers. Thank you contra dance people. All of you are very special.
Because I know personally how important contra dance is I have donated to several dance organizations because in the long run it is good for me… It has helped me in my health and well-being.
How? There are four specific observations:
First: In 2017 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer Gleason 3 + 4 and 4 + 3. Someone told me of the book “RADICAL REMISSION” in which the author interviewed terminal patients throughout the world and identified 9 common factors for their continued living. Many of those factors sound like dance and include: taking control of your health, releasing suppressed emotions, increasing positive emotions, embracing social support, deepening your spiritual connection and having strong reasons for living. I tried all nine factors to the best of my ability for 3 months and was able to keep my PSA from increasing but since it did not decrease significantly I opted for Brachytherapy and external beam radiation treatments.
The second: After the pandemic contra dancing returned August 2022 I attended every dance that I could reach in spite of poor health. Each time I could see an improvement in my health though it appeared not a permanent improvement. It was not just me, other people that I didn’t know commented on my improvement.
The third observation. A couple months ago I asked myself if I had done everything to stay in the healthy living that had started in 2017 in overcoming the prostate cancer, when and why did I lose strength/stamina, balance, weight and reduced cognitive thinking? Looking back I saw two factors. Factor 1: Two significant stressors; one two and a half years ago and the other being the craziness and political lying that had started around 2016. Factor 2: no dancing for two and a half years. In March of this year was told that I had cancer again, this time non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Six heavy infusions of R-CHOP chemo started May 23rd and the last September 5th. Dance helped keep up my spirit during the chemo. The PET scan on November 1st showed no cancer due to chemo and dance working in partnership.
The last observation is the positive effect of dance when I tell you that I feel like a five-year-old but my birth certificate is dated November 1943. I will be 80 years young this month.
Contra dance volunteers/helpers/participants and paid folks including callers and bands….THANK YOU
LET’S DANCE……. DANCE……. DANCE……. DANCE
Some cancer/contra thoughts:
Some parts of traditional American medicine are effective, but not necessarily fun.
Contra dance can really help the body, mind and spirit and IS FUN.
I am thankful that I have not had it as bad as some folks who have had things worse. And am so thankful that there is the CONTRA DANCE FAMILY out there for all of us.
You organizers/volunteers out there don’t get paid enough.
You help in so many ways to help all of us
TO BE ALL THAT WE WERE MEANT TO BE
On YouTube a thirty year old singer by that went by “Nightbirde” was awarded the Golden Buzzer on AMERICA’S GOT TALENT singing her original song: “IT’S OK”. Beautiful song but I don’t agree with the words of the song, having cancer is not OK. She also said “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy”. That’s why I’m here Celebrating Crushing Cancer……..
YOU keep life from being hard.
……..Thank you for being here to be with me to
CELEBRATE CRUSHING CANCER