Visit my new Substack, The Wilds of Cancer: A Journey

A Message from Rick

I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer of 2022. That diagnosis sent me down a trail I’ve never traveled before, battling a life-threatening illness. I’m writing a book about that journey and have a new Substack publication, The Wilds of Cancer: A Journey. I invite you to click on over and join me on this honest and heartfelt journey.

With my focus on this cancer journey, I’ve decided, after ten years, to stop advocating for wildlife and wild lands. Given this change, I will no longer post to Save the Wild. 

My Last Post to Save the Wild provides the backstory for this journey. (Posted March of 2023)

Just before Thanksgiving of 2022, I completed the 44 radiation treatments intended to kill my prostate cancer cells. I’m eight months into an 18-month course of hormone therapy, periodic injections of a medicine that tells my body to stop producing testosterone. That lack of testosterone starves the prostate cancer cells that would typically feed off it. So far the treatment has progressed well and as expected. There have been side effects, but Mary and I have coped. I hope we continue to do so. With this treatment, my doctor gives me a 70% chance of having no recurrence of cancer.

That’s the physical side of this journey. There’s also been a life-changing emotional side: I have not felt for many months emotionally up to writing and posting to Facebook or my Substack publications Love the Wild and Save the Wild.  

It’s not that I’ve stopped writing; I write every day. But my focus has changed. Since I’ve once again come face-to-face with my mortality—as I did when I journaled and wrote what would become the heart of my book The Wilds of Aging—writing has again become journaling. I journal about what I find when researching topics related to prostate cancer’s treatment, side effects, and outcomes. I journal about the emotional roller coaster ride that began when I got the diagnosis on June 21, our 19th wedding anniversary. That ride shows no sign of ending; perhaps it will never end. 

While writing about these facts and feelings is essential for me, It’s not about loving the wild or saving the wild. It’s about loving my life, family, and friends and saving my life. It’s about doing all I can to make my body strong enough and healthy enough to fight the cancer that, left unchecked, would steal my health and life. 

I’ve often thought about posting to Substack, but my heart and mind just aren’t there. I still love living in Gardiner and being surrounded by the wild. I may even treasure each trip into the wild more now. I’m still concerned about saving the wild, but I know that numerous committed organizations are fighting the battle, and I am not necessary. 

So, after ten years, I have decided to stop advocating for wildlife and wild lands. I’ve also decided to no longer post to Love the Wild or Save the Wild. However, I will leave the posts online for anyone wanting to read them.

Perhaps I will return someday to social media with postings about this journey into cancer. Or perhaps there's a book in this. I just don’t know yet what the future will bring. I’ll miss the connections with readers. But my energy, my focus, and my writing must be elsewhere. 

So, farewell for now.

With my deepest thanks for your years of support,

Rick