Author Has Hope, Questions For Future Wants To Use Own Experience With Cancer To Help Others
Futurist Robert Theobald expects to leave Deaconess Medical Center today, nearly three weeks after surgeons removed much of his esophagus.
The 68-year-old writer has resumed walking and sending e-mail since undergoing cancer surgery Nov. 17.
“I’m feeling very hopeful about the future,” he said Friday. “But I’m a realist, it may not be the future I want. I’m accepting the journey that comes.”
Earlier this fall, the international consultant and author of 25 books left New Orleans for Spokane in order to begin cancer treatment near friends.
He was diagnosed as his latest book, “Reworking Success,” was selling out in Australia.
Theobald says he’ll spend the next few months recovering, building a new life in Spokane and working on several projects, including a book on health and healing.
He wants to use his own experience as a means to make cancer information more available. Spokane has a tremendous number of people who work on healing and health, he says, but there seems to be no organized way to find them.
One possibility might be to develop an informational Web site, said Theobald and close friend Bob Stilger. They’re also considering ways to help people with cancer navigate a very individual passage.
“You get 377 people telling you different pieces and ideas, but you can’t sort them out,” Theobald said. “Is there a way to make the journey easier for people and help them make the choices that will work for them?”
Theobald has spent his life trying to help other people live well, said Stilger, director of Northwest Regional Facilitators, a Spokane nonprofit specializing in communications and community development. “He wants to finish his life as he has lived it.”
For the last 40 years, the British socioeconomist has been a leading voice for cultural change. Theobald argues that the modern economic model of making more, buying more and using more things is destroying the environment and many people’s access to a decent life.
His work first brought him to Spokane to plan environmental seminars during Expo ‘74. It has drawn new audiences as the gap between rich and poor widens and global warming raises new concerns about overpopulation and consumption.
But it didn’t make him rich. Friends helped the independent author find an apartment in Spokane and they’re working to raise money to support his recovery and future work. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TO HELP A tax-deductible fund has been set up to aid futurist Robert Theobald’s recovery: Robert Theobald Fund, Northwest Regional Facilitators, 525 E. Mission Ave., Spokane 99202.