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'O', the Oprah magazine, publishes positive CFS article

shannah

Senior Member
Messages
1,429
@Gingergrrl

Sending this with you in mind

The Starfish

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person, he said: "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference."

The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said: "It sure made a difference to that one!"
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Wow, @shannah @alex3619 @ahimsa @WillowJ and @Groggy Doggy (and anyone I accidentally missed!) thank you so much for all of your kind words and I am having a particularly hard day and they really mean a lot. Your timing could not be better or more appreciated. Every single one of you have contributed so much to me as well and Shannah, thank you for the beautiful PM message, too. I love that story about the Starfish and can never hear it enough times. You guys are the best :hug::hug::hug:.
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
I think there IS a spiritual lesson here. Millions of very sick people (globally). Enduring things others do not even dream about. Despite illness, despite denigration and scepticism from many doctors and authority figures, we live on, persist, endure, and challenge the system to make things better for all of us. Sure, as a community we have almost no political influence, but we have not given up.

Thank you, Alex, and that is a good lesson in the power of our collective spirit and that we are not giving up the fight (even though we all have days that we want to.)

It's very hard to resist the idea that all people must justify their existence. I strongly believe that people have worth even if they are not able to contribute to society in some tangible way (working, volunteering, housework, or whatever way people try to contribute).

@ahimsa And yet I still find a lot of this feeling in myself (feeling really bad that I'm not contributing). I would call it internalized ableism.

This idea plagues me in regard to myself even though I never think it to judge anyone else. I know it is a complete double standard but I so strongly want to contribute and participate and I guess it is "internalized ableism" like you said.

Even those who cannot come online can contribute.

I totally agree and when I think of people like Whitney suffering who can no longer come on-line, I would never think that thought in a million years and only feel compassion toward him.

People appreciate your posts, I agree with @Groggy Doggy. Even if it does not seem to be much, if you are writing it then thousands might be thinking it or interested. Your comments can touch all of them. If you ask questions and get answers then others might find answers too. Every single one of us can enrich this community.

Thanks, Alex, and am hoping that something I write here is helping others and it's an interesting parallel process b/c I was thinking all day about how much Oprah's writings and TV shows have helped others and if anything I have written on PR has helped someone like that, it makes me feel honored and useful in some small way. Thank you guys for pointing that out to me.
 

Groggy Doggy

Guest
Messages
1,130
just look at how much effort the BPS people are putting into propaganda to turn the general public against us. They know the value of having Joe the Plumber for (or against) you.
That's okay, because real Science will ultimately win, and Joe the Plumber will think twice before trusting BPS again.
 

Groggy Doggy

Guest
Messages
1,130
I have never before purchased 'O'. This issue I most certainly will purchase, and assuming I find the piece suitable, will recommend my friends and family do the same. :thumbsup:
It's only $18 to subscribe digitally to O for a year, so I plan to do this. It's easier for me to read on a laptop screen (vs. a magazine). Sadly, my friends and family already know more about ME/CFS than the average health care professional. I think we need to get the health care professionals to read the article; hopefully the 2.5 M readership includes some.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I think we need to get the health care professionals to read the article; hopefully the 2.5 M readership includes some.
Maybe I need to buy a copy and give it to my GP. It will probably have more effect than passing on a scientific article. :rolleyes:

ETA: I think there's a message to buying this particular hardcopy issue. We want 'O' to understand that this particular article is important. We want them to see an uptick of sales of the issue containing this article. Subscribing online doesn't send that same message.
 

waiting

Senior Member
Messages
463
Oprah's magazine also published an article on 'CFS' in the mid-2000's.

Memory fails but it might have been by Lauren Hillenbrand.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
That's okay, because real Science will ultimately win, and Joe the Plumber will think twice before trusting BPS again.
There's no guarantee of that, not by a long shot. Besides that, I want it to happen before I die. Yeah, 100 years from now people will probably be saying, "Wow, can you believe the abuse those patients suffered at the hands of those irrational BPS proponents? How did anyone even believe such nonsense?" In the meantime, billions of patients will have suffered untold abuse. I'm not willing to sit back and wait for that to happen in the long run, nor am I willing to bet the health and future of millions of people on the supposed inevitability of the collapse of propaganda.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Propaganda nearly always collapses, eventually, but almost always it gets replaced by even more propaganda. Its a victory to have propaganda replaced by truth and honesty, whenever it happens. Something similar happens with revolutions. Typically you replace one bad government by another. Sometimes people learn though, and that is the real victory. For a time they then get good government. Then they forget, then the government integrity declines.

If the people are not vigilant, that is the citizens of whichever country is concerned, then things go backward. Health consumers also have to be vigilant.
 
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Groggy Doggy

Guest
Messages
1,130
There's no guarantee of that, not by a long shot. Besides that, I want it to happen before I die. Yeah, 100 years from now people will probably be saying, "Wow, can you believe the abuse those patients suffered at the hands of those irrational BPS proponents? How did anyone even believe such nonsense?" In the meantime, billions of patients will have suffered untold abuse. I'm not willing to sit back and wait for that to happen in the long run, nor am I willing to bet the health and future of millions of people on the supposed inevitability of the collapse of propaganda.
@SOC I don't know of anyone on PR who is sitting back and waiting for things to happen. From the postings I've read, we are moving forward by sharing information, supporting each other, and trying differenct protocols. When PWME start recovering, I feel that things will change quickly. Yes, I am angry that we are (and have been) unfairly treated, misdiagnosed, and misjudged. And I feel the recent article in the UK is more of a last minute attempt to justify clinging onto the unscientific theory of treatment (that WE know can cause permament damage or death) and serves more as a rebuttal to the upsurge in NIH scientific commitment.

Each day I do my best to focus on getting better, getting my life back, and supporting others along on the way. This is the way I choose to contribute. I think we will see the efforts our of community pay off within 10 years (not 100)
 

WillowJ

คภภเє ɠรค๓թєl
Messages
4,940
Location
WA, USA
Evidently the December issue has "My Favorite Things" in it, a popular article that people might also buy a single issue for. So this issue will have even wider distribution than "O" magazine in general.

They may still be able to tell the increase over usual, because of this particular article.