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Self-improvement and goodness is the reward
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We live in a world where awards seem to be freely given and freely received. In fact, sometimes the award becomes such a strong incentive for good work and behaviour that it overshadows the more subtle rewards that might be enjoyed along the way.
Especially with today’s youth, awards are often larger-than-life motivations. Children work busily to complete their household chores with the hopes that it will earn them a special treat from their parents.
Meanwhile, the satisfaction of a clean home goes unnoticed. Teenagers bring home a stellar report card but can’t recall what they learned about at school that day. In their pursuit of good grades, they’ve somehow missed the thrill of gaining and applying knowledge.
Perhaps we unintentionally reinforce this attitude by expressing love or approval with expensive gifts, when little children are often quite pleased with the packaging; or even just the visit. We may deprive our young people of the most enduring rewards if we fail to teach them that goodness is its own reward. We feel good when we are doing good.
Indeed, the means can be just as fulfilling as the end if our motivations for achieving personal goals are not just the awards that dangle in front of us. We make more lasting progress and feel more contented when we learn to enjoy not only the reward but also the path that leads to it.
Some young people long to graduate or secure a high-paying job, only to find that their “dream” is not as gratifying as they thought it would be. “What comes next?” or “Is this all there is?” may be their unspoken feeling.
If, however, we pay attention to the more understated moments of success along the way, the times we completed a difficult task, the mornings we arose early to exercise or study, the people we’ve helped, we begin to understand that the true reward is what we’ve become, not what we’ve earned.
The Proverbs teach, “To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18). Intuitively children seem to know that. They just need to be reminded that while a prize is pleasing, a sense of doing right is the truest joy.
We all know the law of the harvest: the fact that we tend to reap what we sow. And even when we sow carefully, we don’t always reap what we expected to.
One day a middle age woman planted a small garden of fruit trees and vegetable plants in her home garden which she had done in the past at her previous habitation.
In the past, her harvest had been abundant and rich, enough to share with family, friends, and neighbours. But this year was different. All through the growing season, her plants struggled. Temperatures fluctuated, insects invaded, birds raided, and squirrels sneaked in. Everything seemed to combine against her little garden. Despite her hard work and every effort, the gardener did not reap much and sometimes felt like giving up.
But was her garden really a failure? No, the expected harvest didn’t happen. But looking back, the gardener now recognised an unexpected harvest that came from that year’s garden, and it didn’t just happen at the end of the growing season.
Her garden was a spiritual refuge for her, a place of peace, and a haven of healing. There in the rain and soil and sunshine, she felt a little closer to heaven, and even inspiration seemed to come to her mind and heart more freely.
Pruning and weeding brought insights about dealing with the difficulties and challenges in her life. While nurturing plants, she nurtured her soul. Maybe the value of this harvest could not be accurately measured in strawberries and squash, in corn and cucumbers, but in the satisfaction of the soul, in the peace and healing and happiness that came as she laboured in her garden.
Sometimes the harvest is not what we expect. Even when we’re trying to grow food, what we’re really growing is ourselves—our understanding, our perspective, our character. That’s true no matter our field of endeavour. The effort is more important than the outcome.
If success were guaranteed, if the outcome were somehow decided in advance, the lessons learned may not be as rewarding. But when we dig deep enough, when we open our heart to the effort, we can come to see the abundance and richness of an unexpected harvest.
By Samuel Enos Eghan
CECIL, alias Lee of Community 3, Tema, and formerly of Vibe FM, has said he would recommend the Sikaman Palava’ column to hypertensives, that is, those suffering from high blood pressure. According to him, the column is a medical therapy and a perfect prescription for the afflicted.
Well, Lee might be right, because mails I receive from all over the world, courtesy of the Internet have also alluded to a calming effect of the column. Emails pour in from as far as the Philipines, are oiling my knuckles. I feel flattered.
I get mails from the Middle East, Canada, United States and some African countries. I often get amazed that playing with words on paper elicits such profound interest in my readers. I thank my readers for the recognition and acknowledgement.
However, I am not alone in this game of humour peddling. Oldboy Professor Kwesi Yankah who has been a great inspiration is one personality whose word juggling has illuminated the pages of newspapers, right from the Abonsam Fireman days. His pen is still dripping of humour.
Where is Ivan Dornu Adjokatcher, the ex-darling of THE MIRROR? Full of wit, he ran a column that had quite a following. One day he met me and I told him he was crazy if not, then he was downright mad.
Ivan went and edited a private newspaper and had a brush with the owner. He left. He sent me a postcard from the United States. Very good pals we’ve always been. He needs to return to the fold.
Now, Ghana journalism would have been tasteless without writers of humour, those who see the interesting side of serious issues.
Nigerian humorists are great and some of their writers have really made all the difference in the newspaper industry, with their amazing paper industry sense of humour.
Many of them studied journalism in Ghana with our folks here and went on to carve niches for themselves. Nigerians have a good sense of humour and this is exemplified in their drama and writings.
Read Chukwemeka Ike and Elechi Amadi and you’ll be getting the drift. Even Wole Soyinka (Nobel prize winner for literature) whom I sometimes consider overly stiff and pedantic, exudes a unique kind of humour in his plays.
In Ghana, aside Amu Djokoto’s “The Strange Man’ which spots many faces of humour and Atukwel Okai whose poetry induces some mirth, the literati have generally gone dry of humour.
Any good piece of writing must either be poetry or prose must either be highly intellectual, controversial or humorous. Ghanaian writers should take up the challenge and publishers should offer the platform for the expression of various genres of penmanship.
Every publisher in Ghana is doing only school books. Is all that publishing is about? Only a few like Woeli and Holiano are doing something else.
In Ghana broadcasting, there are great touches of humour worth reading. Foremost is Kwame Sefa Kayi who gave Radio Gold a great and left to pitch camp with Peace FM.
He hosts a very explosive morning Kokrokoo programme that could blow through the roof tops if it is not tempered with humour. When you have guys like Kwaku Baako Junior, Kwesi Pratt (also Junior?), Baby Ansaba and boxing supremo NDC titan, Ama Benyiwa-Doe, on the show, only a sense of humour can avert mayhem.
They are all nice fellows but when it comes to politics, I fear for Kwame’s jaws. I wonder how he survives day after day.
Kwame’s spontaneous burst of humour once in a while does the programme a lot of good. No wonder his programme was last year adjudged Best CIMG Radio Programme.
Let’s not forget JOY FM’s Ato-Kwamena and of course Bola Ray also of Joy and “Music Music fame. They know what it takes to make others laugh. I hate to miss Ato during the newspaper review on Joy. I always have something to laugh about.
At least, you can laugh in Ghana even if you are not permitted to sneeze on Sundays and public holidays.
This article was first published on Saturday August 19, 2006
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Public awareness campaigns have successfully cast breast cancer into the global spotlight, typically framed through a uniform lens of pink ribbons, early detection drives, and triumphant stories of survival. While these initiatives have driven vital mammography compliance and research funding, they often perpetuate a sanitised narrative. Beneath the polished public messaging lie complex, less-discussed clinical realities and emotional burdens that patients, families, and healthcare providers must navigate long after the initial medical milestones have passed.
1. The myth of the clean ending (The Post-Treatment Cliff)
A prevalent cultural assumption is that a breast cancer diagnosis is a discrete, finite event: a patient receives a diagnosis, undergoes surgery and treatment, rings a victory bell, and returns entirely to their former life.
The reality of chronic survivorship: For many individuals, active treatment is merely the first grueling chapter. Once daily hospital visits cease and hair begins to regrow, patients frequently encounter what clinicians call the “post-treatment cliff”-a sudden isolation where support structures fade, yet physical and psychological recovery is only beginning.
Lingering sequelae: Chronic fatigue, neurotoxicity (nerve tingling or numbness), lymphedema (painful swelling in the arm or chest wall), and cognitive shifts (colloquially termed “chemo brain”) often persist for years, permanently altering daily functioning and professional capacity.
2. Tumor heterogeneity and the limits of early detection
While screening mammograms save countless lives by catching tumors early, public messaging sometimes implies that finding a cancer early guarantees a straightforward cure. Modern oncology recognises that tumor biology is vastly more complex.
Aggressive Subtypes: Not all small tumors behave benignly. Aggressive molecular variants-such as Triple-Negative or high-grade HER2-positive breast cancers-can proliferate rapidly and shed microscopic cells into the bloodstream even when caught at a remarkably small size.
The metastatic reality: A subset of patients diagnosed with early-stage disease will experience a distant recurrence years later. Metastatic breast cancer (cancer that spreads to organs like the bones, liver, lungs, or brain) accounts for the vast majority of breast cancer mortality, yet it often receives a fraction of the nuanced public dialogue compared to localised diagnoses.
3. The Silent marathon of long-term maintenance
For the majority of breast cancer survivors whose tumors are hormone-receptor positive (ER+ or PR+), the conclusion of surgery and radiation does not mean the end of therapy.
Adjuvant endocrine therapy: Patients are frequently prescribed hormone-blocking medications-such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors-to be taken daily for five to ten years.
The quality-of-life trade-off: These medications drastically reduce recurrence risks by starving potential stray cancer cells of estrogen, but they carry profound side effects. Joint stiffness, severe bone pain, accelerated osteoporosis, vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes), and mood disruptions can severely impact quality of life, leading some patients to discontinue therapy prematurely despite the oncological risks.
4. Overlooked populations: men and young adults
Cultural depictions of breast cancer overwhelmingly center on older women, leading to dangerous blind spots for minority demographics within the patient population.
Male breast cancer: Though accounting for less than one per cent of all diagnoses, men develop breast tissue and can contract the disease. Because awareness among men is exceptionally low, male patients often mistake early symptoms for minor skin or chest wall irritations, resulting in delayed diagnoses at more advanced stages.
The unique burden on young adults: Patients diagnosed under the age of 40 face distinct challenges, including navigating fertility preservation before toxic chemotherapy, managing career disruption during peak earning years, and dealing with more aggressive tumor biology alongside prolonged survivorship horizons.
5. Financial toxicity and systemic disparities
A diagnosis of breast cancer triggers an invisible secondary crisis: severe economic strain.
The cost of care: Even with comprehensive health insurance, out-of-pocket expenses for specialised imaging, genetic testing, reconstructive procedures, and ongoing prescription drugs can accumulate rapidly.
Disparities in outcomes: Socioeconomic status, geographic location, and systemic healthcare inequities heavily influence survival rates. Access to advanced clinical trials, genomic assays (like Oncotype DX), and top-tier multidisciplinary care remains unevenly distributed, creating a disparity where ZIP code can heavily dictate clinical prognosis.
ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
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