According to the National Cancer Institute, one out of two men and one out of three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and three out of four American families will have at least one family member diagnosed with cancer. Those statistics are so overwhelming in scope that it takes a minute before it sinks in just how epidemic cancer is and how many lives it touches. And even after the reality of the numbers has become a reality in my mind, I am still always surprised when I find out someone has been diagnosed with cancer, or someone they are related to has died of cancer.

I was happily and distractedly researching information for something entirely unrelated to cancer -- a recently released animated movie based on a favorite comic strip Over The Hedge -- when in an interview with Bruce Willis, who is the voice of RJ the raccoon in the movie, shared his philosophy about life and living. Willis lost his younger brother to pancreatic cancer five years ago. In the interview Willis remarks:

"Life is really short. Even if you live to be 90 years old, it goes by in the wink of an eye. You don't have anything to say over when you're going to die. The only choice you really have is to try to live it up while you're here, and don't postpone happiness. I'm just happy-go-lucky. You know, I'm still a kid at heart. I wake up laughing. I have been doing that for a long time now."

Willis might be someone who embraces a whimsical approach to life based on how unpredictably short life is, but it is woven with a very serious side. He has offered one million dollars of his own money for any person offering information that would lead to the capture of Osama bin Laden, and visited US troops at home and in Iraq. He is not all that thrilled about living in Los Angeles, a place he calls one of the most toxic environments on earth because the air is poisonous. According to Willis, children growing up in LA are exposed to air pollution equal to smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes a day. He doesn't think anyone should be able to see the air they breath and he's really certain that air is not supposed to create a crunchy sound when you get a mouthful of it. But work is in LA, and his three children live there with their mother, ex-wife Demi Moore, so he stays.

When you know life is short, and you don't have much say in when you go or when someone you love will go, realizing what is and is not important becomes clear -- in both embracing joy and being real in choosing to live with relevance and meaning where time is not wasted on the insignificant and small stuff we can normally get caught up in.

I thought I was doing research for a post that had to do with a children's animated movie, and instead was reminded once again of how cancer touches almost every life at some point in time. Even as a cancer survivor, sometimes I forget how epidemic cancer is and the philosophy of life that matters. Until I read the interview with Willis. Then I remembered.