An Apology to the St. Catharines Standard

A person's shadow is made up of the socially unacceptable

personality traits that s/he represses or keeps hidden.

 

If you want to know what your shadow looks like make a list

of the people you don't like and write down what it is about

them that is so hateful.

That list of characteristics is your own shadow personality.

Even countries have shadows.

On the surface Canada is a haven of justice

and über politeness.

 

But to see the country's shadow think of the police actions at

the G20 riots in Toronto, the reputation for viciousness that

our international hockey players have earned

or the government's disinterest in the 600 missing

aboriginal women.

 

It is healthier to acknowledge the shadow

as a part of who you are.

But it is a painful process.

 

When I saw the image of  young breast cancer survivor

it triggered the fears that I don't acknowledge.

 

The fear of cancer, of its treatment and

 

ultimately

 

the fear I have of death.

.

I did not want not want to be confronted by it,

not then,

not over my evening cup of tea.

"... if it is possible, let this cup pass me by."

We experience strong emotions and then we label them.

I labeled my reaction to the image incorrectly.

 

Truthfully

it was fear.

 

And hard as  it was to look at it,

it was exactly what I said it wasn't.

It was a community punch in the

jaw to cancer.

 

My apologies to the St. Catharines Standard.

The Gods Love a Hero

There was a time when The Hero Archetype was

exclusively male, but the thing with archetypes is that

they evolve -  they become more or less powerful

as shifts occur in human thinking.

There is no lessening of the importance of the male Hero,

(think of Frodo or Nelson Mandela),

it just happens that we live in a balancing time in the

history of humankind.

 

***

 

The archetype that we identify as The Hero

begins her journey by going on a quest,

 

(in this case she begins by looking for a cure

for a dreadful disease).

 

The Hero also has to undergo terrible

hardships,

 

(i.e., chemotherapy, radiation),

 

at great personal cost,

 

(the loss of her breast, a powerful symbol of

womanhood in many societies).

 

It is absolutely necessary that The Hero

sacrifice herself for the sake of others,

 

(she allowed her body to be photographed and

her identity made public to give courage to other women).

 

Finally, The Hero archetype must  slay the monster,

 

(the cancer, in remission).

 

***

So now that I  think I understand

why this remarkable image resonates

with people,

I should feel better.

 

But I don't.

It still makes me uneasy.

 

Next blog:  Confronting the shadow

Rethinking a Blog

Lake of Bays, Ontario (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've had something on my mind for several days now.

I've been uneasy.

And it has to do with the stand I took on the image of the

woman who lost her breast to cancer.

 

The first clue that I had a problem came when I made

a typo at my blog site.

I was shocked and unsettled, you could even say rattled

when I reread my response to a comment. 

I'd written that I agreed with the person when I had actually

intended to say that I disagreed.

It was a classic Freudian slip, although I refused to see it that

way at the time. (I hate to be wrong about anything.)

I hurriedly deleted my response.

 

Second, I received a letter from a dear blogger friend

explaining how the image had given her courage to do something

that was actually of great benefit to many disfigured children.

 

Although my internal response to her letter was alarm

I replied with a sort of "well isn't that nice" comment.

 

The light still hadn't come on.

 

Then last night I dreamed I was standing on a wooden dock on

Lake Ontario not far from where I live in my awake life.

I knew that my 'dream' house should have been at the end

of the dock but I could see that it wasn't.

Instead, the dock sloped gently into the dark water and disappeared.

 

When I woke I realized that there was a message in my

subconscious mailbox, (water being the dream symbol

for the unconscious), and if I wanted to retrieve it and

 

end my unease

 

I was going to have to walk down the dock

get into the water and start working with symbols.

 

Next blog: Looking at the image symbolically

I am still a WOMAN

This week the St. Catharines Standard ran the picture you see

above under the heading,

 

"I am still a WOMAN".

The newspaper photo included her face

and took up 3/4 of the front page.

It was shocking,

and the reader was supposed to see it as

a visual punch in the jaw to cancer.

 

But it was very wrong.

 

Her statement that she is still a woman is absolutely true.

And to publish a picture of the face and naked torso of any

woman in our community should be seen as totally

immoral at worst, an assault on her dignity at best.

 

But sick people are vulnerable people.

And sick, pretty, young women are vulnerable AND exploitable.

Try to imagine the photo of a man who had lost

a testicle to cancer posed on the front page

in a similar manner.

 

The Standard usually does an outstanding job giving voice to

the struggles of the people in this community,

but not this time.

 

 

 

 

 

For the Love of Boobies

High school kids love boobies.

We know that because so many of them across North America have been threatened with suspension this week for wearing bracelets that say so.

The naughty little bracelets are part of a breast cancer awareness programme aimed at teens.



Apparently Proctor and Gamble doesn't love boobies as much as the kids do.



Proctor and Gamble is using parabens, a chemical preservative, in their Oil of Olay Regenerist skin care line - even though parabens have been found in human breast cancer tumours.


I found out about this because I follow Toronto artist/writer/woman with a green conscience, Frankejames on twitter and she mentioned it this week.



***

I haven't been using the Regenerist line but I have been using an Oil of Olay face wash so I decided to get out the magnifying glass and take a look at the ingredients.

I didn't find parabens listed on that product but I did find a cheery looking substance
called methylchloroisothiazolinone.

"Well, well," I thought, "what's the good news here?"


I googled methylchloroisothiazolinone and found that although not proven to be a carcinogen (yet), it  "can be a skin and membrane irritant or cause chemical burns.

It was largely removed from most cosmetic products except for those with only short duration skin contact such as rinse-offs".   (wikipedia)



Eek.





 

Frankejames suggested looking for a cosmetic line with an Ecocert logo.

My quest for a safe facial product started and ended at The Body Shop.

 The woman who waited on me was quite familiar with the Ecocert logo and suggested the Nutriganics line, suitable for women "in their prime", like moi.

Not only does Nutriganics have the Ecocert logo, it also has the FCS* logo.

Organic and ethical!


Jeesh.


How much on the side of all that is right and good can one woman get??



Anyway, wearing my new Saint Frances persona, I am suggesting that if you love your boobies you read the ingredients on your cosmetics jars


and

if you love other people with boobies you suggest they do the same.

* FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council.
It means the product came from a forest that environmentalists, developers and first nations people have worked together to manage ethically.

$ Note:  I bought the 50 ml day moisturiser and the 50 ml  night moisturiser @ $22 each and as there is sale this week at The Body Shop, I got the Face Wash for free. 

 

Related articles

• Cosmetics Ingredient Alert: Parabens (fitsugar.com)
• How to Find Paraben Free Products (brighthub.com)
• 'I love boobies' campaign deemed offensive by school board (parentcentral.ca)