BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THERE ARE ADVANTAGES TO HAV-

ing had cancer. When the bloodmobile folks come to

town, for one, they re not the least bit interested in si-

phoning blood from you, even if you ve got some rare

blood type known only to God and six people on a re-

mote island off the coast of South Carolina. Two, I get

my mammograms at half price. Third, I ve discovered

one can get away with being a bit eccentric. If you de-

cide to take up skydiving or transcendental meditation,

for example, or suddenly become a vegetarian addicted

to broccoli sprouts, people may think you re a little

nuts, but they don t give you a hard time about it. They

just nod their heads, peek at each other sideways, and

whisper knowingly, cancer.

That s probably why my sister Ruth thought I d be in-

terested in those NewAge gizmos she sells in her shop

on Main Street in downtown Annapolis when they ve

never particularly interested me before. She had just

telephoned to say she d be coming over with "a little

something" to show me. I shuddered. The last time she d