cancer scares me quite a bit. it probably scares me more than anything and definitely scares me more than it should. any time i think about it i consider the things i can do to live a healthier life and try to google what foods i should eat to prevent cancer in my own life. it's a scary thing to know that there is a disease which kills so many people that does not have a high rate of elimination once it's a part of your body. in this day and age of medicine it sometimes feels like we are invincible because there aren't many diseases that can take us over, but the thought of cancer makes me feel helpless.
jim valvano was a legendary basketball coach for north carolina state. he coached the wolfpack to an upset national championship in 1983 over the houston cougars which featured future nba players and hall of famers. jimmy v was a spectacular motivational speaker and a great man in sports. he also died of cancer in 1983, 2 months after giving a famous speech at the espy awards which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXlkqkFH6s
in the midst of this speech valvano motivates us all to live our lives to the fullest. he makes this suggestion: "To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
on this day of the jimmy v classic, which is in celebration of the jimmy v foundation for cancer research, i want to encourage everyone to experience these things. allow life to take you over. laugh daily. think daily. allow your emotions to overcome you daily. if we do these three things daily we will live amazing lives. but more importantly, if we don't do these things daily, then are we even living?
you only have one life to live. one opportunity. take advantage.
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