My best advice is to muster up an abundance of grace and empathy.

This is a tough but important topic. You see cancer patients raging about it on social media… “You can’t believe the idiotic thing somebody said to me today.”

We’ve all heard them. Yes, they sting. Yes, they fall flat. Yes, those people missed the mark by a country mile. But, lucky for them, they don’t know what it’s like to be in our shoes, and they simply don’t know what to say.

Let’s not be too hard on them.

Before we found ourselves in this mess, we were them, too. We were the ones saying the dumb things. We were starting sentences with, “Well, at least it’s not ______.” Because we didn’t know what to say. And sometimes our brains allowed nonsense words to leave our mouths.

Most people mean well and want to be helpful. There’s simply no rulebook on how to get it right in every situation.

Grace to all of us.

Grace to the cancer patient, because you’re already dealing with enough, and that off-putting comment just might send you spiraling. Grace to the friends/family members/strangers who put their feet in their mouths. Points for trying. It’s not their fault they don’t know how we feel.