Overcoming the Monster

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This is the story I think we’d all, whether living with diabetes or not, like to tell.

Triumph over adversity. Victory in the face of defeat. Thriving in spite of illness.

This is the story many of us fear we won’t be able to tell. That big, bad, dark monster is just too strong. Try as we might we cannot control it. We might not even be able to manage life with it very well. We don’t have the power or the skill. Too much is unknown. Too much is variable. Ultimately, we all will die, whether it’s attributed to diabetes or not.

Trying to live this story can be very painful because along with triumph and victory we think we need perfection. Life with diabetes is anything but perfect. Out of this pain sprouts frustration. Then the question becomes who or what do we aim that frustration at? The doctor? The disease? Ourselves?

Overcoming the Monster is one of the seven basic plots identified by Christopher Booker in his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. This week I am looking at life with diabetes through the prism of these seven basic plots.