Talk About Succinct

I know a cancer patient who always says that cancer is the best thing that ever happened to him. Every time he says this, I want to smack him in the head with a 2x4. (Yeah, wonder what his wife and kids think of that statement!) I sort of know what he means, but I can't imagine a more inane way to express it. I happened upon an article here about the results of a study in which cancer patients kept a diary or journal, recording their thoughts about how cancer changed them, and how they felt about those changes.

While a change in the way a patient thinks or feels about a disease may not sound like much, the findings showed that the brief writing exercise led to improved quality of life.

The last sentence resonated with me like a two-ton gong. Next time this guy opens his pie hole, I'm going to try and remember that this is what he really means:

One patient wrote: “Don’t get me wrong, cancer isn’t a gift, it just showed me what the gifts in my life are.”