That tongue-in-cheek quip came from a TV reporter who had spotted me at a legislative hearing a couple of years ago. On my 65th birthday\u2014February 17, 2010\u2014I got a call informing me that I had a rare, terminal cancer. The median survival rate from diagnosis is 14 months. That was four years ago this week. By year five, the mortality rate is 95 percent. I hope to beat the dealer again.<\/p>\n
Some claim that \u201cMonte Bute\u201d is a stage name. That is one of the few things I have not concocted. Having been stigmatized as an incorrigible juvenile delinquent, I’ve spent a lifetime giving my spoiled identity a do-over. Truth is that each of us has an existential freedom to script ourselves and our storyline\u2014or to haphazardly allow others to do it for us.<\/p>\n
Charles Lemert writes of the \u201cmysterious power of social structures.\u201d Far more than most of us care to admit, those powers define who we are and shape the contours of our lives. Too many of us live in a simulated reality analogous to the movie \u201cThe Matrix.”<\/p>\n
Much of the time, this socially constructed reality seems immutable. It assigns us, for good or ill, identities and social roles. All too often, we accept without question those identities and play the roles we are dealt. A sociological aphorism to keep in mind: Either we \u201ctake\u201d roles or we \u201cmake\u201d roles.\u00a0In other words, we have a fate or we have a destiny.<\/em><\/p>\n “Monte Bute,” a character I conjured up back in the day, seldom follows the screenplay. Whether it is the scripts of prisons and mental hospitals or political organizations and universities, he insists on improvising his lines and actions. This does not mean he does not run amok; he does so routinely, sometimes paying a god-awful price. Occasionally he even tilts at windmills. Nevertheless, he remains resolutely resilient and as stubbornly swashbuckling as a naive Don Quixote, ever looking for the next adventure.<\/p>\n I approach death and dying just like all other movies I\u2019ve been in\u2014ignore the script and improvise like hell!<\/em>\u00a0If there is any such a thing, I will be eternally grateful to family, friends, students, and colleagues for having shared the stage. Your nurturing presence during the past four years has empowered me to play my most challenging and fulfilling role. We are nearing the end of this film, but I am sure I\u2019ll fashion a denouement that will surprise even Monte . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That tongue-in-cheek quip came from a TV reporter who had spotted me at a legislative hearing a couple of years ago. On my 65th birthday\u2014February 17, 2010\u2014I got a call informing me that I had a rare, terminal cancer. The median survival rate from diagnosis is 14 months. That was four years ago this week. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2163"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2167,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}