Pre-Existing Condition


My pre-existing condition is that I’m human.


As a human being, I am both strong and fragile.  Accidents, maladies, genetic variations, viruses and other smack* happens to me.  I grow and grow and grow, then I stop growing and just be-be-be, until I begin my descent (i.e., deteriorate ) and, eventually, die (of one thing or the other).

I don’t know what’s going to get me or when.  The possibilities are endless.


“It” is every where – in the food, in the water, in the vessels in which the food is packaged and prepared.   It is in the air.  It is in the radiation beaming from space, across the room, and into my ear.  Some people weather these daily assaults and live long lives nonetheless.  Others succumb and fall along the way, sometimes even as babies who did nothing more than be born.   Each of us is invaded by one “it” or another.


Picture this:  two sisters.  They have the same mother, same father.  They grow up in the same household, eat the same foods, drink the same water, and attend the same schools.  One  sister, after feeling poorly and out-of-sorts for a while,  is diagnosed, at age 23 with an autoimmune disease.  In subsequent years she will be denied coverage because of her pre-existing condition.  As if it is her fault.


My pre-exiting condition is being humanAre you really not gonna cover that?





*a phrase from back-in-the day used instead of s**t.


About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

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