Getting Personal for a Moment

Screen grab of Jon on Saturday taken from NESN 

I’ve been composing this post in my head since Saturday night.  I’m not sure how it’s going to come out so, I apologize in advance if I babble.  🙂

Ever since he showed up at Spring Training last year, Jon Lester has been telling interviewers that he just wanted to play ball, he didn’t want to be known as the ball player with cancer, he only wanted to be known as a ball player.  If you follow the trail back through last season, you can find the interviews, either in print or on tape.  And who could blame him?  All he wanted to do was play baseball and he gets stopped cold with a cancer diagnosis.  That was in late August 2006.

In February 2007, he was back with his team getting ready for another season of baseball.  How amazing is that?  I’ll tell you how amazing – pretty friggin’ amazing.

I was drawn into Jon’s life, somewhat unintentionally, when he was diagnosed, so when I would read or hear these interviews, my first thoughts were always "He just wants to move on – I totally understand".  Even though it bothered me a little.  Let me explain why.

I was born with a birth defect – Spina Bifida.  I’ve mentioned it in passing here before.  I’m not afraid to tell people about it, and if you ask me about it, I’m happy to talk at great length about what I went through as a sick child.  (And if you ask my mother, she has many a story about being the parent of a sick child and she’s also happy to share them.)  I don’t feel stigmatized by telling people about my Spina Bifida.  There have been times when sharing my story has even helped give parents of Spina Bifida children hope because of how I turned out.  🙂  So it upsets me when people try to deny their medical histories.  Especially when sharing those experiences can help other people.

Which brings us to why I’m writing this.  After the Jimmy Fund event on Saturday, I watched NESN’s Sports Desk and the brief coverage they had on it.  (You can find the video of the piece on NESN‘s website.)  Here’s how Hazel Mae introduced the piece:

"…Lester, who beat his bout with cancer, was happy to be able to spread some cheer!"

And then the sound byte from Jon:

 

"…It’s one of those things where they just look at me as a Red Sox player and look at it that way.   They don’t look at me as a cancer survivor or anything like that.  It’s nice to be looked at that way instead  of a cancer survivor.  It’s nice to get that title off your name for a day and just be looked at as a ball player and have some fun."

I’m not even sure what I want to write here.  I suppose, on the surface, this is nothing.  Nothing different than what he’s said before.  But put it in context.  He was at an event where he was surrounded by children with cancer.  Many, if not all of them, Red Sox fans.  How can he think that those kids aren’t looking at him like a cancer survivor?  As someone who was in and out of hospitals for, pretty much, her entire childhood, I can tell you that it’s EXACTLY how these kids are looking at him.  When you’re a sick child, finding out that an adult you look up to can relate to what you’re going through…well, that’s HUGE.  Absolutely huge.  And being in Boston, knowing that a Red Sox player had the same disease you did and got through it…I’d be willing to bet that, sometimes, that’s exactly what these kids need to get them through a bad day.

 

Would it kill him to acknowledge it?  That he’s an inspiration to those kids and a symbol of hope  to their parents?  And it isn’t just kids.  A good friend of mine went through cancer treatments last year pretty much all along the same time as Jon.  He wore his "K Cancer" t-shirt to his treatments at Dana Farber and, even as an adult, he looked to Jon as inspiration.  "If that kid can get through it, I can too." 

Why is that such a bad thing?

I hope that Jon has people around him who can help him realize that getting and beating cancer doesn’t have to be all  negative.  It isn’t something to be ashamed of or to hide.  Especially where he’s a famous person who can have a positive impact on people by sharing his story.  But I worry that no one is doing that.  No one enjoys being labeled, but sometimes the labels we’re given (or that we earn) are important not because of how they affect us, but because of the way they affect others.

I think it’s wonderful that Jon attends these Jimmy Fund events. (And I feel the need to point out that he was courteous and generous with his time and quite sweet to me, even remembering who I was – much to my surprise.  So I’m  not trying to bash him here.)    I just hope he realizes that he brings something special to these events that the Dustin Pedroias and Gabe Kaplers don’t bring…and there’s nothing wrong with that.