October is breast cancer awareness month, November turns into ‘Movember’ when men grow moustaches in support of men’s cancers, we’ve been asked to wear purple to support the stop gay-bullying message, and purple is also for epilepsy awareness. We’re supposed to shut down our social media outlets in support of Autism and post where we put our purses on our facebook status in support of women’s cancers. We wear red ribbons to show our support for AIDS awareness and men walk in women’s shoes to support women’s cancers. Not to mention every week there’s some kind of facebook status update thing going around that you’re supposed to post if you’re a girl from Nova Scotia who wears pink bras that likes it on the kitchen table and who’s also a good sister – or something like that.
My point is – I can’t do it all. I didn’t even attempt to shut down for Autism awareness – not because I don’t think that Autism awareness is a valid cause – I most definitely do – but social media is a huge part of my job. I think it’s pretty obvious I won’t be sporting any facial hair for ‘Movember’ (God willing!) and I like to reserve my facebook status to talk about how much I like coffee, or Gossip Girl, or maybe even how much I find Paulie D from Jersey Shore attractive (no judging allowed – it’s my facebook status update and I’ll embarrass myself if I want to!). Needless to say I just don’t want my non-participation to be deemed apathy.
Because I’m far from apathetic. September was the month we found out my father had cancer – breast cancer. After a mastectomy was performed he now will endure 9 weeks of chemo and radiation therapy as well as genetic testing because apparently having almost every one of your siblings (he has 10) have some sort of cancer is a bit odd. Oh yeah, and did I mention he had a bout of colon cancer last year? So my causes are kinda focused right now. Plus if you add in the fact that my mother calls myself, my sister and my brother weekly asking if we’ve booked our doctor’s appointments to schedule our mammograms and colonoscopy (can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that one) I just prefer to support in my own way.
Every cause is valid, but everyone can’t outwardly support every cause. Sometimes we have to pick and choose those causes close to us and focus our energies on those. So just because I don’t shut down my social media, or I might not wear pink all October or post various things to my facebook status does not mean I don’t support your cause. Because I do, but right now I’m gonna focus on my own cause.
Scene and Heard
Confessions from a Pop Culture Mummy
Printer-friendly version