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Living With Leukemia Chester Freeman Embraces Wabi-Sabi
Chester Freeman is a retired college and hospital chaplain. He is also a teddy bear artist whose creations are highly collectible. He travels and lectures on the therapeutic value of teddy bears. He is the author of a children’s book Runaway Bear (Pelican Publishing, 1993). He collaborated with the Children’s Theatre Department at East Carolina University(Greenville, NC) to turn his book into a full-scale production which premiered at ECU. Chester has received diagnoses for bladder cancer and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Chester Freeman shares how the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi helped him embrace his scar and find beauty in imperfection while living with leukemia.
Chester Freeman, living with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, shares the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi as a guide for patients with cancer. He defines the tradition as "accepting the imperfections in your life or in things," calling it "the art of impermanence."
At 13, a tumor in his shoulder forced him into surgery. The tumor had grown to the "size of an orange," leaving his doctor unsure "what this is going to mean for the use of your arm." After a year in a cast, he recovered his mobility but was left with a significant scar that ran "from this part of my arm all the way over to the middle of my chest." Freeman recalls being "shocked," "horrified," and "so ashamed of it" that he "never wore short sleeve shirts for the longest time." He admits, "the first time I wore a short sleeve shirt was when I was 65 years old" — a 52-year journey to accepting his own body. He realized the scar, which once brought shame, was actually a symbol of his strength.
Now 73, he offers this wisdom to others. To women losing their hair during breast cancer treatment, he advises embracing "the aesthetics of wabi-sabi," encouraging them to "shave your head. Find the beauty in the shape of your head and the shape of your face." For those who undergo a radical mastectomy, he stresses, "find the beauty in your scar. That scar is a symbol of your strength." He insists, "don't let your femininity be defined by the loss of your breasts," but rather by "your dignity."
Similarly, for men dealing with prostate cancer, he urges them not to let scars or procedures "define your masculinity," which is instead "defined by the way you carry yourself, by what's in your heart, by your aura."
Freeman’s ultimate message is to embrace all personal marks, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual: "Embrace them. Find the beauty in the imperfect. Find the beauty in accepting who you are and living with it. If I can do it, you can too."
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