It’s sad when you have a passion and try to do productive things to fulfill that passion but find you’ve made poor choices. I’ve done that.

My passions are a cure/ effective treatment for cancer and the prevention of homelessness through understanding of it. Forget the later, for now, because most people aren’t interested in the topic until it happens to them and it seldom does. Cancer happens to everyone, whether directly or through someone they love.

I still give toward cancer cures and to cancer patients and their families but I believe I could do more and once thought I was. I guess I picked the wrong organizations. The organizations I picked were not about the cause as much as they were about themselves and when I realized that, I pulled out.

Organizations need to realize people feel passion for things that touch their lives. They’ll pull all their punches for those causes, in this case, cancer.  I want to do something in memory of the people I lost, to make that loss less painful and feel like it is less in vain. If the organization is founded on celebrating one person and not the whole of the cause, it loses me. My heart is with those I’ve lost and helping others not go through the same thing. As much as I admire survivors of cancer, have personally witnessed what it is to go through the treatment, and celebrate their fortitude, cancer is bigger than one individual.

I think I am able to get people behind me for a cure and support for cancer patients and their families because my Grandmother died of breast cancer, my Grandfather died of leukemia, my Father died of colon cancer, my mother died of ovarian cancer, my Brother died of lung cancer, and my Sister died of liver cancer.  It is one person’s family but it could be anyone’s family. It could be your family or another's family. It could be you or anyone you love. Cancer is just that BIG. That urgent. That close to home for EVERYONE. It is not about you or me but about the human family.

So I am missing an opportunity to help the cause because I feel an obligation to remind people, cancer touches everyone and ALL survivors are rock stars. Their families, me excluded, are rock stars, too. Don’t think, just because I am not a rock star, I don’t feel the hurt of missing an opportunity because I’d like people to see a bigger picture. I just believe that bigger picture will fuel more fires.