Kids Know How To Fight

If you’re looking for an example of the challenger spirit look no further than a youngster struggling to beat childhood cancer, the number one disease killer of children. The devastating diagnosis is delivered to more than 10,000 families each year. And while every case and prognosis is different, the medical professionals who attend to these children will tell you they share one thing in common: they fight. They fight with a spirit that doesn’t bend easily to defeat. Sadly, this doesn’t always mean success.

In the Zen tradition, practitioners are encouraged to see with the eyes of a child. Children don’t know what they don’t know. They aren’t over informed by their experience, and firm expectations haven’t been set. As adults, most of us lose our natural capacity for presence and orient toward outcomes informed with too much information. When challenging a foe as big as cancer, pushing forward with a mind unencumbered with the oppressive burden of statistics, data, and experience is an advantage.

While he didn’t win his own battle with childhood cancer, young Connor Cruse fought this way. Today, his challenger spirit is still fighting through the TeamConnor Cancer Foundation established by his parents to help fund research for new treatments. What a fitting privilege it has been for our team to contribute to the fight.