Fear

Today, my son was going to go to his best friend’s birthday party. It was an awesome party — a trip to the lake, a campfire, and an overnight camp out.

We didn’t let him go.

There was a threat of bad thunderstorms, and we did not feel comfortable with sending him off to camp in bad weather, where a tree might fall on his tent, or the wind might blow it down around him. It was a small chance, but too much for us.

That’s not a normal reaction to bad weather. We should have let him go — but we just couldn’t handle the risk.

When you have lived through a worst case scenario, you lose the ability to pretend that a small chance is no chance.

This is the lingering scourge of cancer.