![]() ![]() Pace cited Bowler’s willingness to be authentic in front of the student body as why ORSL chose to invite herthe reason why ORSL invited her. ![]() This year, the ORSL invited Bowler, who refers to herself as “New York Times Bestselling Author, Duke Professor and Incurable Optimist,” to deliver the lecture titled “Life After Perfect.” Bowler was diagnosed with stage four cancer at 35 years old, but she survived and continued to tell her story to the world through her podcasts, speeches and books. Past topics include “interfaith and interreligious understanding” presented by Interfaith America and “the building of civil rights and racial justice in Atlanta” presented by Taos Wynn (06Ox, 09C), Pace said. The overarching theme of the Chaplain’s Lecture Series has always been “religion, faith, spirituality and meaning making,” Pace added. “I’ve been here for 14 years, and it’s been happening ever since I’ve been here,” Pace said, though he wasn’t sure the exact year the series began. The Chaplain’s Lecture Series is an annual event sponsored by the Pierce Program in Religion, and the Oxford’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) decides the speaker each year. This was the first time the series returned in-person to Oxford College since the onset of COVID-19, Oxford College Chaplain Lyn Pace noted. 7 in the Oxford Student Center for the Chaplain’s Lecture Series.ĭuring the talk, she discusses the challenges of false positivity and other topics featured in her new novel “The Lives We Actually Have,” which was released on Valentine’s Day this year. So let's just see if I want to talk about it today, because sometimes I do and sometimes I want a hug and a recap of American Ninja Warrior.Canadian academic and author Kate Bowler spoke on Feb. Does your head hurt? Do you feel sad? Me too. But picture the worst thing that's ever happened to you. I can hear you trying to be in my world and be on my side. On her list of things not to say to someone with terminal cancer, including "How are the treatments going and how are you really?" It was a scan and it looked brutal, but I spent that week thinking like, "This is my last year for sure." And it was weird because the next day, I turned to a friend and I said, "Would you like to go visit the world's largest Ukrainian sausage?" And he was like, "Oh, I'm in." The other thing I do is I try really stupid stuff, like I got terrible news a couple months ago, which thankfully turned out to be a medical error. I try to make other people's day a little gentler. So I do make rules for the day, like don't talk about sad things after 9 p.m., so I try to make my day a little gentler. Well I have rules for when things are too sad, 'cause sometimes, just the reality of things really feels like an avalanche, and it's just going to sweep everything away. On how she has learned to cope with negative news about her diagnosis Goats and Soda What's The 5-Year-Survival Rate For Cancer Patients Around The World? But I do think the thing that has radically changed is I really was, before, trying to create this little bubble around him and us, 'cause I thought, like, "It's my job to protect you," and then I realized that I would be the worst thing that happened to him if this went badly. He is entirely impervious to all of this, in the best way. On whether she has had conversations with her 4-year-old son about death And there's this, kind of, almost terrible exchange, where you're trying to remake the world as it was. You have these impossible thoughts like, "You will live without me," and "Please take care of our kid." And like you're trying to do all that hard work and then in the same moment, they're trying to rush in and say, "We're going to fight this." There's all these plans they want to pour their certainty in, to remake the foundation. ![]() I was trying to learn how to give up really quickly, like looking at my beautiful husband and just immediately all the stuff you're supposed to say, which is just like, "I have loved you forever," and "All I want for you is love." I went from feeling like a normal person to all of a sudden, like this spaghetti bowl of cancer. On how that diagnosis affected her relationship to friends and family Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Everything Happens for a Reason Subtitle And Other Lies I've Loved Author Kate Bowler ![]()
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