Anne Flaten is my friend, my colleague, and my cycling companion of many years. She passed away early this morning. There isn’t a dang thing I can do about it except to honor her life. I want to pass along a philosophy we discussed while paddle boarding a few weeks ago on the waters of Lake Mendota.
Anne was bothered by the notion that one “battles cancer”. To win a battle with cancer implies that we have control over our survival. While I do believe that mental, emotional and physical integrity can improve our chances, I have not known these attributes to stop cancer growth. Anne wondered if losing the battle meant failing. I do not think that cancer wins when a life is lost. If the battle is to defeat death, we all lose. The battle is to live life. Anne won that battle.
We are all dying the minute we are born. A life isn’t measured by the number of breaths we take, but rather by how many times our breath is taken away (that’s a poor rendition of a quote I read once). Anne lived many breathless moments as a mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend.
Anne was a natural energy source. It is no wonder there was a power outage last night as her soul started to make it’s way out of her body. And it is equally understandable that the sun had difficulty shining today. The world will need to make quite an adjustment to regain equilibrium in the entropy department.
Her Drafters jersey never saw a bike ride, and I think her decision to purchase one underscores her commitment to living fully. The battle was won. I will hold an open bike at Spin to honor my friend.
And I will honor her by winning the battle each and every day, choosing to live rather than to merely take up space. Please join the Drafters on Monday night at Free House at 6pm if you would like to raise a glass to toast Anne.
BrickO
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