but for the grace of...

Throwing a dinner party for fourteen is no mean task, and I am a bit wiped out.

But today, through a bit of internetworking (if you'll allow that) I learned that someone I know is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Chemo, surgery, the whole nine yards.

This someone isn't someone I know well; I know her through friends. She's also a doctoral candidate, doing work that overlaps with mine to a degree. In the tiny little bit I've gotten to know her, I found her a lovely person whose mind and sensibilities I respect. We haven't had much contact -- certainly not since I've been in Botswana -- but I think on her from time to time in that way one does with interesting people, often friends of friends, who one doesn't know that well but who one wishes one had the opportunity to know better.

So I'm in a bit of shock. I think it's safe to say that cancer is alarming in anyone, but it's scarier to hear it happening to someone so (for lack of a better term) structurally similar to me. There but for the grace of...

I am wishing her well as hard as I can, even if I don't feel in the position to do so directly.