It doesn't always show
Tonight, I was talking with a good friend. In the course of the conversation he sent me a photo of a beautiful young woman he’s known since high school. She has cystic fibrosis and other condiitons that are likely to develop into lymphoma. She used to model when she was younger, but life got in the way. She’s still beautiful.
My father died from cancer.
One the most influential professors I had in college died of cancer. Another was diagnosed with MS while I was her student.
I have 2 former girlfriends who have MS.
I have 2 close friends with cerebral palsy.
A very good friend of mine has a 50/50 chance of having Huntingtons Disease.
My maternal grandmother had Alzheimers. It runs in the family.
My paternal grandmother died from diabetes. It runs in the family.
I’m afraid to count the number of friends suffering from mental illness–eating disorders, depression, and more.
I don’t think there’s a one of us who doesn’t have friends, family, teachers, or respected persons in our lives who are afflicted by a serious or terminal disease. We aren’t doctors. We aren’t chemists. We aren’t medical researchers or powerful politicians. We can’t find the cures and we can’t make the laws that apportion the money to find the cures.
But some of us do have another type of power. We’re artists. We can make all of this personal. This is what we do.
It will take me a couple days to get the site fully set up, but I’m asking for contributions right now. The contributions I’m looking for? Photos. Photos of people with chronic, serious, even terminal diseases. Photos of active, attractive, powerful, every day people suffering from these diseases. We’re constantly bombarded by images of people in hospitals, on life support, begging for our sympathy. It can be hard to sympathize with someone who’s hooked up to a dozen life-support systems. It’s really easy to say “that’s not me”. And from there, it’s a tiny step to say “that will never be me”.
However… images of attractive people–people we want to be–saying “I’m dying; please help” strikes home. It gets attention.
TerminalHotness.com will not collect any money. It will simply point people to recognized charities, research groups, and political lobbyists that seek to cure debilitating and terminal diseases. Every gallery will have a link to the appropriate charity or charities. Every one of those charities will be listed in the sidebar.
What I’m asking for is simply this: Photos. Professional-quality photos of active, attractive people who deal with potentially debilitating or fatal diseases. We’re not looking for sympathy. We don’t want to be pitied. We’re strong, attractive, and sexy… we just have some other shit to deal with on the side. We may need a cane, or a wheel chair, or medicine… we may be dead in 5 years… but we refuse to let that prevent us from being beautiful.
If you’re interested in contributing, please do.
