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Cancer

Let me tel you a story of a bucket full of crabs. In a large, plastic pail, crabs were thrown in after being hunted down and captured. Throughout the day, more and more crabs were added in. Those on the bottom were soon being crushed to death by those thrown in after them. But some of the crabs managed to pull themselves above the others and stand on top of the mountain of bodies.
The ones on the top believed they belonged there because they worked hard, they were smart, that they were better than those below. But all it took was a single twitch of a lower crab's limb, and they all fell down, returning back to chaos. The ones who once stood on the top were too tired to fight once more to return, so new crabs stood on the top, getting closer and closer to the edge, closer and closer to freedom, with every additional body it stood upon.
But again and again, the tower would collapse, bringing everyone further and further away from freedom, from the edge of the bucket. At the end of the day, the crabs were boiled alive and eaten by a poor family who could only afford to eat what little they grew or caught.
Thus ends my story of a bucket full of crabs.

"But Yesterday, I was a Goldfish"

"Well, of course I'm not human. I'm obviously a butterfly." With this, he grabbed the edges of his kimono sleeves and flapped his arm multiple times, catching the wind with the cloth like sails and letting them go so they'd flutter like.. a butterfly. "But yesterday, I was a goldfish." Again he grabbed his sleeves, but this time, moved only one arm in a slow loop following the infinity sign. His sleeves wavered and billowed back and forth as he moved his hand.
He had already left his seat long ago and was now moving his arms in elaborate circles and shapes, mimicking a fish... or still a butterfly?
"Fate had told me to jump and swim in the air, so I did. But when I did leave my watery world, I couldn't breathe. So I died suspended above my home." The man began to slow down and simply circle the room. His hands moved still in slow infinity signs, but his sleeves no longer moved with him, but rather hung quiet and still. "My body decayed and shriveled up to a small, black thing. My spirit cried, and the Great Spirit cried alongside me. He pitied me for I had died following my dreams. How could I swim at all now? I thought to myself." He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head gravely.
"The Great Spirit continued to cry, when quietly a single tear of his fell upon my body. When I was alive, I was as golden and vibrant as the sun. But the Great Spirit's tear had painted soft and mute wings upon my dead body. I flapped my newly gifted wings as hard as I could to live again... For I no longer had a heart beat, so I had to create one of my own. Do you not hear it now?" He again grabbed his sleeves with his fingers and brought them together to create a whoo.. sound, but quickly drew them away from each other. Again and again, whoo... shh! Whoo... shh! He created a heart beat.
"I lived again. My dark dead body only a reminder of a past life as a beautiful but discontent goldfish. My bright purple wings as my new life as a fragile but happy butterfly. For as long as I beat my wings, I will live."