We keep living anyway.

Yesterday, actor Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer. Every time we as a society lose a public figure, it sends shockwaves through our country and across social media. This loss has stuck with me in a way that others haven’t. Not because he was my favorite actor, although I do respect his work tremendously. But because it was cancer. In your face proof of what we already know. Cancer affects everyone. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, where you’re from, your family life and background. Cancer finds you. And sometimes, all the expert doctors and chemo drugs just don’t work. I walked around all morning with these Hamilton lyrics stuck in my head. “Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes.” And it had me feeling helpless. 

Then I saw a tribute posted by President Obama. “Chadwick came to the White House to work with kids when he was playing Jackie Robinson. You could tell right away that he was blessed. To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain - what a use of his years.”

And with that last line, I remembered the rest of the lyric. “And we keep living anyway.” And it changed my perspective. Yes, a family, a community, a country are grieving the loss of a life gone much too soon. But he kept living anyway, in the face of pain and adversity. “What a use of his years.” So I’m reminded (and encouraged even) that even when we have death staring us in the face in the form of a cancer diagnosis turned battle of our lives, we can still keep living anyway and make great use of the time that we do have. Together.