I'm Positive

There's a lame old chemistry joke about two atoms who spend a long time in a bar. One of them falls off the barstool and yells, "Ow!" The other asks if he's ok. The first one says, "I think I knocked out an electron." The second one asks, "Are you sure?" "I'm positive," the first replies. [Insert rim shot here.]

This is a different context for the word "positive," but I've been thinking about positive attitudes lately because of an older couple who are very dear friends of ours. He has recently gone a few rounds with prostate cancer that was at the beginning fairly troublesome, but which now is undetectable. Gene certainly did everything the medical professionals asked him to do, but the most amazing thing to me was the positive attitude the two of them have had through this whole ordeal. The human body is a very complex thing. One thing science teaches us about complex systems is that it's often impossible to know what variables in the system affect other variables. Data suggests that attitude can impact health and recovery from injury. Who knows how much (or if) a positive attitude can alter a medical outcome? If nothing else, it certainly can affect one's quality of life.

Just as that good news came about his prostate cancer, his wife, who had smoked when she was younger but quit many years ago, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Test results aren't back yet, so they don't know the extent of the cancer, but I will bet on two things: they will meet this with a positive attitude, and no matter what the eventual outcome, their attitude will certainly add to the richness of their lives.