If there is a defining characteristic of a man compared to a boy, maybe its patience
I believed in belief, for its own shining sake. To believe in the face of utter helplessness ,every article of evidence to the contrary, to ignore apparent catastrophe - What other choice was there? We do it every day, I realized. We are so much stronger than we imagined, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics. To believe, when all along we know that nothing can cure the briefness of this life, that there is no cure for this brief mortality, that is bravery.
To continue believing in yourself, believing in the doctors, believing in the treatment, believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing, I decided. It had to be.
Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming sense of impending doom, every single day. and it will beat you. I didnt fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world, how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism. Dispiriedness and disappointment, these were the real perils in life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millenium doomsday. I knew now why people fear cancer; because its a slow and inevitable death. It is the very definition of cynicism and loss of spirit.
So, I believed
Lance Armstrong, Its not about the bike; My journey back to Life
