A Declaration to Abolish Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Prepared by:
Pink (the color), October (the month), and Mary (the disease)

I am pink.
I lavish the birth of baby girls.
I rouge the checks of elderly ladies,
Flush the faces of children
Building snowmen in winter’s first snow.

I fly on the feathers of tropical birds.
I pulse within the salty, slimy bulb of jellyfish.
I burst thru frosty soil on the buds of the delicate crocus.

I am October.
I extinguish the hope of latent summer days.
I shake dying leaves from the trees,
Fill the sky with gray,
Moving the thermostat from COOL to HEAT.

I cheer football, soccer.
I harvest squash, apples and potatoes
I illuminate too cold nights with moon’s full radiance.

I am Mary.
I fell in love with pink the October day I gave birth to my daughter.
I have breast cancer.

We declare the following statements to be true:

1. There is no pink in cancer.
2. There is no cancer in October.
3. Marketers have contrived victors and victims. They have minimized our innate humanity and replaced it with pink trinkets that confuse awareness with compassion.
4. They have made those with cancer the incarnation of one’s worst nightmare.

We therefore demand the undoing of this obscene tribute and henceforth authorize:

Pink to awaken cuddled in the mountains snowy clefts at dawn and lay down to sleep atop clouds at sunset.

October to play in piles of red and orange leaves and wander into winter, warm and nourished.

Mary to place breast cancer amongst her belongings, secure in her joy of living, comforted with the love of those who surround her, and graced with the beauty of this planet.



October 12, 2011