Not the triumphant “I beat cancer!” bell, which I’ve now rung in both 2024 and 2026.
Not the cinematic, slow-motion hospital hallway bell where everyone claps like you just won Olympic gold in lymph nodes.
No.
Maybe a smaller bell.
A slightly confused bell.
A bell that says:
“Congratulations… your terminal illness is now more of a long-term administrative problem.”
That’s the strange new territory described in a recent New York Times essay about terminal cancer becoming chronic illness.
Medicine has become remarkably good at extending life. Immunotherapy, targeted treatments, and precision medicine are allowing many people with Stage 3 and 4 cancers to live years longer than expected. Which is extraordinary.
But psychologically?
It’s weird as hell.
You prepare to die.
Then suddenly you’re told:
“Actually… maybe not yet.”
So now what?
You’re no longer fully dying, but you’re not exactly “cured” either (although my radiation oncologist uttered that word last week as a potential possibility for me…first time I’d heard that, but we won’t know for at least six months while I continue the testosterone-suppression). You live in what one patient in the article calls “the gray zone.”
I know this territory intimately now.
Now?
The old cancer metaphors no longer work for many people. The “battle” framing feels exhausting. Sometimes you don’t feel like a warrior. Sometimes you feel like a 65-year-old trying to remember his password while scheduling my next PSMA Pet scan.
And yet, there’s surprising beauty in this gray zone.
Because when life stops pretending to be permanent, ordinary moments become luminous.
A walk.
A laugh.
Warm bread.
A text from a friend.
An afternoon without nausea.
A scan that says “stable,” which is now one of the sexiest words in the English language.
Maybe that’s the lesson.
The goal was never certainty.
The goal was presence.
And perhaps the real bell worth ringing isn’t the one announcing you’re cured.
It’s the quieter bell that says:
“You’re still here. Try not to miss it.”
-Chip
P.S. Our first Cancer Thriver workshop this winter was a profoundly beautiful experience. We’re offering our second Cancer Thriver workshop Sept 6-10 in Santa Fe called “From Survive to Thrive: Cancer as a Catalyst for Deeper Meaning & Purpose.” It would be an honor to have you join us on this journey.