It’s Good to Be Here – Stories We Tell About Cancer

On the evening of his installation as the 39th Moderator of the United Church of Canada, David was ecstatic.  It had been a perfect evening of celebration with friends and family.  

Then David’s life changed forever.

In this honest and humbling memoir, David takes us on his journey through the hills and valleys that was his struggle with cancer, while at the same time he served as the Moderator of the United Church of Canada.  

From his book “My self-perception and my confidence in God’s call were shaken to the core. How could someone sick and weak lead the church?  Would cancer treatment incapacitate me?

Against my own instincts, I began to learn how to lead from weakness and vulnerability.  I traveled across Canada and around the world, speaking from my fragility rather than strength.  Cancer and its treatment knocked me from the saddle of the great white stallion of certainty, youth, and vitality.  I started to ride a humble, sometimes comic, donkey, like the one Jesus rode into Jerusalem to face the power and fury of the Roman Empire. “

From the back of the book:
“It’s Good to be Here: Stories we tell about cancer is a courageous and deeply personal book about the author’s more than 20 year journey with cancer.  It is part memoir, part spiritual mediation in which Giuliano challenges the ubiquitous and one dimensional “battle with cancer” narrative, with alternative narratives about temples, treasure, light,  pilgrimage, wolves and love.  It is fiercely honest, at times funny, book about the metaphysics of medicine and the power of story to heal.”