Jack and Diane said...
Boy do I ever and I dislike it very much! I also get the vibe of "that's your husband that has cancer, not me, cancer doesn't happen to me, I'm healthy", well so was my husband.
I have also seen this attitude, it's kind of arrogant. Where I live, people are influenced by this narcissistic culture with all of these self-focused improvements: exercise routines, special diet regimes, meditation, yoga, you name it. It's all about
me-me-me. That can lead to a feeling of being superior, especially if they happen to be healthy. Those of us who have cancer are failures, obviously whatever we are doing is wrong. I've gotten the feeling of being shunned by some people. I was talking with someone who is like this a few weeks ago. It was the first time I shared with him about
my cancer and we talked for quite a while. At the end of the conversation he said: "Well...I plan on living for a long time!" It was really insensitive, but he couldn't see beyond himself. He's in his 70s by the way.
A little story to illustrate: My mother-in-law came out to visit us from Germany a few years ago. She's in her 70s and gets around pretty well, but it's getting harder for her. We were staying at the beach for a week and she went out for a walk one day on a paved path near the water. She slipped and fell down right in middle of the pathway injuring her arm pretty badly. She couldn't even get up. Right behind her was this guy who was running with all his high-end running gear, totally into it, etc. You know the guy. He stops right in back of her, then carefully steps over her and continues running without saying anything or even acknowledging her. Very sad.