Miles Levin was a privileged, well-educated, handsome, kind, distracted, unfocused boy of 16 when he learned that death - in the form of cancer - was making a slow, measured march in his direction. It was as if the villain in one of his video games had stepped into the room in which he was playing and took form in front of him. He found himself living a nightmare. And he began to write about it on a website called “Carepages”, a site originally created for hospital patients to post progress reports for family and friends. Miles stretched the boundaries of the site’s purpose, investing it with his spirit and making it into a destination for tens of thousands of supporters. Through reading his Carepage postings a slowly growing audience accompanied Miles as he came to understand the merciless nature and the gruesome determination of the foe that confronted him. His readers felt privileged to enter that space. And because of the record he made, we were able to witness a quickening of character, a self-making, so noble that it captured the attention and admiration of tens of thousands of Carepage readers, newspaper readers, and television viewers around the world. His readership grew steadily throughout the 26 months of his illness, leading to his death in August, 2007.
Miles was one of twenty eight million people a year, worldwide, who are afflicted by one form of cancer or another. That statistic might prompt one to wonder why people took notice of one more cancer victim. Without a personal connection to our family, it might be asked, “Why should one read about the death of your son?” After all, he hadn’t fallen on the field of battle in the service of his country. He hadn’t come to his death in a blizzard while making a spectacular mountain climbing ascent. He had not shot up his classmates before committing suicide; wasn’t kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. Just where is there a story here? The story is to be found in the inner recesses of a frightened teenager’s mind and heart wherein he made a series of personal decisions that lead him to look squarely at death and to tell what he saw with keen clarity and disarming honesty. His is not a story about death; it is the story of a race to manhood. It is a story about accomplishment, intentionality, resolve, comportment and courage. It is a poignant story about human development seen up close and personal.
Miles learned of the threat to his life when he was 16 years old. It was a grim diagnosis and the physicians did not pull their punches. They told him right out of the gate that he had less than a one in five chance of surviving five years. Knowing how the odds were stacked against his survival, leaving childhood for adulthood was optional for him. He might have chosen to sit out the last period of the game, simply accepting care and comfort. But he came to realize that to do so, to stay in childhood given the compressed trajectory of his life, would mean forfeiting his only taste of sovereign adulthood. He decided to fight for life, to savor it, and to make a record of his journey. In doing so, Miles' example gives courage to people who, regrettably, face similar prospects and his example inspires all of us to use our time wisely and productively, and to be generous and kind. That is no small accomplishment.