April is the cruelest month in dropping all sorts of awareness topics on our heads: Autism, Cancer (various types - I covered testicular cancer earlier this month), financial literacy, and poetry… suppose we become “aware” of all this? What are we supposed to do with all this awareness and knowledge?
Episode Links
Poems
I. The Burial of the Dead
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
The Poetry Foundation, Poem Guide by Tyler Malone: The Waste Land
The initial declaration of The Waste Land—“April is the cruellest month”—is clear enough in meaning, even if it defies readers’ expectations. The opening is a subversion of the first lines of the General Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
General Prologue of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Translation of first 18 lines of the General Prologue, Wikipedia
Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
1
When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
Autism Awareness
Livejournal posts
April 2026: Autism Awareness Month, April 2026
April 2011: Autism Awareness Month and Diarmuid
Oct 2009: I come to praise the Fred S. Keller school
Sept 2009: Breakthrough!
Aug 2009: Profile of the founder of D’s school, and a few details
STUMP posts
Mar 2014: Can Disney Films Teach Social Skills? - the sole post by my late husband Stu
Just as no two people are alike, the son in the article, Owen, and our son, D., are different in their disabilities. D. had no language loss — because he didn’t have language skills to lose. He spoke rarely but always sang songs he loved. D. didn’t withdraw from the world and has always been loving, cuddly and interested in any adult who gives him attention. I can go on but let’s focus on a commonality between the two. They love videos.
Apr 2025:
For Autism Awareness Month: My Son Diarmuid
The following is only intended to be a taste, not comprehensive. Some of this is because people decided to have a hissy over RFK Jr’s remarks, which I will not link here.
Aunt Betsey & Mr. Dick — from David Copperfield [Dec 2019]
Mar 2021: Cuomo Killing the Disabled and the Elderly: This Time It’s Personal
Cancer
The National Cancer Institute’s latest official SEER statistics — based on the November 2025 data submission (covering diagnoses through 2023) and publicly released in April 2026 via SEER*Explorer — confirm what many in insurance and benefits have sensed: early-onset cancers among adults under 50 are accelerating, even as overall age-adjusted cancer rates remain relatively stable with only a modest recent uptick.
Other Awareness
April 2026: Testicular Cancer Awareness Month
As long-time readers know, I support the Movember Foundation, primarily due to their association with prostate cancer issues.
April: Financial Literacy Month
April 2026 Financial Literacy Month Resources at MyMoney.gov
Resources at Council for Economic Education
Dec 2024: An Actual Murderer Among the Recently Commuted by Biden (a murderer involved with life insurance fraud)
May 2022: Podcast episode — Don’t sell insurance to the Mafia
May 2022: Podcast episode - Fraudulent Life Insurers
Jun 2024: Podcast episode — Fraud and Embezzlement! How to Prevent and Detect
Dec 2024: Revisiting Fraud & Embezzlement Episode: Rita Crundwell and Biden Commutation
May 2022: Podcast episode — Don’t perpetrate financial fraud in spreadsheets
Nov 2022: Podcast episode — FTX, Dickens, and Business Fraud
