“We should be dazzled by our good fortune — dancing on the tables every day,” Simon Boas, who was given six to 12 months to live in February, wrote in his letter, titled, “A Beginner’s Guide to Dying.”
A 46-year-old man with terminal cancer has moved many with a touching letter about being grateful for the life he’s lived, and how he’s learned to accept his death.
In a lengthy profile for The Telegraph, which was published earlier this week, Simon Boas opened up about his letter, titled, “A Beginner’s Guide to Dying.”
Boas — who is based in the Channel Island of Jersey — was diagnosed with throat cancer in August, and in February, he was given six to 12 months to live.
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“MY favorite bit of understatement ever comes not from a Brit or a Spartan but from the Japanese Emperor Hirohito,” Boas began in his letter, which was first published in the Jersey Evening Post in February. “In August 1945, following Japan’s defeats in every recent battle and the obliteration of two cities with nuclear bombs, he broadcast that ‘the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.'”
“Well, I’m sorry to have to announce that my cancer situation has also developed not necessarily to my advantage,” he added.
Boas — who is the director of Jersey Overseas Aid — recalled how he was diagnosed with “advanced throat cancer” in August and underwent a “fairly aggressive regime of treatment to try to cure it,” including chemotherapy and radiation. While the treatment helped his tumors in his throat and neck, Boas said he was told his “lungs are now riddled with the bloody things.”
“The prognosis is not quite ‘Don’t buy any green bananas’ but it’s pretty close to ‘Don’t start any long books,'” he wrote. “So it seems I’m going to hop the twig, and probably sooner rather than later.”
Despite his diagnosis, Boas said that “many things give me comfort,” including “support and compassion” from friends, loved ones, and “even total strangers,” along with his job.
“And there are three related thoughts I have again and again, which bring me joy and which I would like to share,” he wrote.
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“First of all, I take comfort from the thought that I’ve had a really good — almost charmed — life. (I’ll start with the boasting, in the hope you will have forgiven or forgotten it by the end.),” Boas said, before detailing some of his incredible experiences and travels throughout his life and career.
“I have climbed the Great Pyramid, sailed across the Med and chipped chunks of concrete off Checkpoint Charlie,” he wrote. “I have traveled extensively on five continents, sung in choirs on three and crossed borders with diplomatic immunity.”
“Most of all, I have loved and been loved. I”m cocooned in the stuff; my cup overfloweth,” Boas added.
While he’s only 46, he noted that he’s “lived far longer than most of the humans in the 300,000-year history of our species.”
“And if the book of my life is shorter than many modern people’s, it doesn’t make it any less of a good read,” he added. “Length and quality are not correlated in lives any more than they are in novels or films. So carpe that diem and keep it carped. And enjoy the tiny ways you can make other people a little happier. That’s actually the secret of being happy oneself.”
Boas shared that his “second comforting thought” is that while “nobody knows whether there’s a God, or an afterlife,” he said that “our almost-instinct may well be almost true: What will survive of us is love.”
“And finally, the thought I keep coming back to is how lucky it is to have lived at all,” he continued. “To exist is to have won the lottery. In fact, there are so many bits of extraordinarily unlikely good luck that have occurred just for us to be born, that it’s like hitting the jackpot every day of the year.”
Life is inordinately precious, unlikely and beautiful.
Boas later went on to express gratitude for his fulfilling life, before noting that we’ve all experienced “good fortune” in our lives — whether we’ve realized it or not.
“So, if I whine that my life will have been shorter than many modern people’s, I am massively missing the point,” he wrote. “I’ve existed for 46 years! It’s as churlish as winning the £92 million Euromillions jackpot and then complaining bitterly when you discover that there’s another winning ticket and you’ll only get half the money.”
“Life is inordinately precious, unlikely and beautiful. … We should be dazzled by our good fortune — dancing on the tables every day. And I mean to keep dancing in whatever time I have left here, and (who knows?) perhaps afterwards too,” he concluded.
Read his letter in full, here.
While speaking with The Telegraph, Boas detailed his life, career, and legacy, and how he was able to have such a positive outlook on life following his diagnosis. He also reflected on the overwhelming response he’s received to his letter, with hundreds of strangers having reached out, including The Telegraph journalist who wrote the profile.
“The response has been wonderful and it’s brought me such happiness to know I have made a difference,” Boas said. “I resolved at the beginning to write back to everybody. But it’s taking quite a lot out of the day now.”
As for those, like his coworkers and loved ones, who are struggling with the fact that Boas’ illness is terminal, he said, “Enjoy the tiny ways you can make other people a little happier, that way lies your own happiness.”
“I’ve never compared myself upwards. It’s a gift to be able to prepare yourself and your loved ones for your own extinction,” he added. “Knowing I am going to die, it’s easier to concentrate on kindness and the best in people. I’m leaving life loving it, and everybody in it.”
