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Telling the Whole Story
On Valentines Day, I had lunch with a friend who is in the midst of cancer treatment. She’s no longer wearing a scarf or a cap, as her hair is starting to grow back. She looks beautiful. Through the process, everyone has been moved by her grace and resilience, and we tell her so. But at lunch, my friend admitted that she’s tired of being identified as a sick person, even a courageous one. She wants to be ordinary, again. And that got me to thinking that none of us wants to be labelled as only one part of ourselves. Whether it’s brave cancer survivor or plucky single woman with a cat.
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With so many wonderful parts to ourselves, why would we be satisfied with a single label, even a positive one. I quite like this post’s title, Wendy–Telling the Whole Story. Sure, I”m this, but I’m also that. We are multi-faceted. Yet, we don’t always promote that. The default is usually job-related (oh, she’s the funny professor; oh, he’s the stern doctor). And I admit I’m guilty of this sort of reductionism.
Of course, I am a plucky single woman with a cat. And in a few weeks, a plucky single woman with a cat and a new kitchen 😉
Being identified as a woman with a new kitchen sounds awfully good to me.