Compassion is defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. To be stricken by cancer is one of the worst misfortunes that one could face or imagine. Cancer enters enters our lives uninvited like a startling roaring tornado hitting us from the back. It feels like an octopus monster grabbing us with its tentacles and sucking our essences. This C monster comes from nowhere and carries us to the unknown. The rest of us think that it must only happen to other people but us! Those unlucky people with cancer might had the wrong food or water, we assume. What do they expect after the years of smoking like a chimney, we judge. Maybe it is the polluted air they breathed or the burning sun they soaked their skin in, we believe. It must be their bad genes, we conclude. Our mind races to find a reason that makes sense so we can convince ourselves that it would never happen to us. It is so frightening to even think about the possibility of us getting the disease which name start with the letter C, we immediately quarantine the disease in our mind along with the person that carries it. Of course we feel sympathy or more like petty to that unfortunate person with cancer but how much time you were told that you have, we curiously ask. I know a person who had your same cancer and she died in 6 months, we share a story. It is not because we are rude or we fail to connect on a deeper level. It is because it is too scary to let that jailed monster out. We get lost in our emotions and we come up with the worst comments and questions. A person with cancer wants to be treated as a loved one, as a friend, as a respected human being who happens to have cancer. A person with cancer needs hope. Please give hope and don’t take it away because no one can survive without hope. Just being their for them means the world. Listen attentively. Acknowledge their feeling and suffering. Ask what you can do to help. Don’t judge, don’t assume and above all don’t dehumanize. Always remember that there is a chance that we will be grabbed by that C monster and we will be on the other side. There is a fine line that tangles our emotions when it comes to compassion and cancer. We all have short time to live. Let us enjoy each other in every minute left. Untangle your emotions and give genuine compassion. Wael A Harb