Nobody dislikes Tony Snow. By acclamation, people who know him say the White
House press secretary is the most decent, kind and encouraging human being
they have ever met. Speaking from personal experience, I can testify not
only to his inner warmth and outer kindness, but also to the goodness of his
wife, Jill, and their three children.
The return of Snow's colon cancer comes only days after Elizabeth Edwards
announced the return of her breast cancer. Snow was quick in his warm
comments about the wife of the presidential candidate, which came just days
before the discovery that cancer had moved to his liver. He can identify
with Elizabeth Edwards.
At a Jan. 31 dinner for media people in conjunction with the National Prayer
Breakfast in Washington, Snow revealed his soul to the 100-plus hardened
journalists and others in a hotel banquet room. He told us, "In many ways,
having cancer was the very best thing that ever happened to me, other than
marrying my wife."
He said the death of his mother from colon cancer produced a "shadow that
follows you." He said he wasn't afraid of dying, but is afraid of leaving
his wife and kids. These are human emotions with which everyone can
identify, whether or not they have had to deal with a potentially fatal
disease.
Snow spoke about the importance of "faith and attitude. You have to make a
choice about whether you want to live." Speaking of a friend who had cancer
in several parts of her body, he said faith and attitude are not decisive in
whether you will live, "but they certainly are a great help, because those
who give up, or give in to self-pity about how awful things are, a lot of
times they don't make it."
He said the disease caused him to ask where he would go with faith: "For a
lot of us as kids, having faith is like sitting on Santa's lap; you pray
because you want things and you want outcomes. But instead when you're faced
with death, you don't really die, you get to go to a cooler place with maybe
a sterner teacher. It's not that big a leap and you're going to see a lot of
friends there." Now there's a sermon!
So, how do you approach God, he wondered? Do you ask for favors, or do you
do something that is very hard in the modern era, "which is learn how to
give yourself to God, to surrender. It's not just saying ŒGod, it's in your
hands,' but understanding whatever may come afterwards is a matter of not
trying to get God to do stuff for you, except maybe to mow down some of the
barriers that separate you from God, because for all of us, our vanities get
in the way."