This is not going to be a post about how short life is and how we need to value every moment of it, though that is true.
Rather, this is about how fragile life really is. I'm thinking about this today because, in the past two years, two good friends of mine have fallen very, very ill. In short, two good friends of mine have almost died.
These are not girls who lead unhealthy lives. Quite the opposite, actually. These are girls who exercise regularly (one is even an ultra-marathoner), eat well, don't use drugs, and generally respect their bodies. However, these healthy habits weren't enough to keep their bodies from acting up - one suffered a brain tumor and the other went into cardiac arrest while running.
I've never believed in the 'invincibility of youth,' but I still find myself stunned when these kinds of things happen. You hear stories about how strong the body can be - a man surviving a forty-story fall or a person with two prosthetic legs competing in an Iron Man - but stories of how precarious life is rarely make headlines.
I know that my two girlfriends are strong enough to make their lives into great comeback stories, but for now I find myself wondering, 'Why them?'
Why are we so fragile?
1 comment:
It's like when you hear that someone has lung cancer and yet has never had a cigarette in their life. And yet, the chain smoker has no cough or medical ailments (yet?). Life is so unpredictable. Sometimes I think it's the people who can really handle the tough aspects of a sickness and become stronger people that are afflicted. Probably not quite the case, but it brings me comfort to me when people I know get sick to think that they are really the strong ones.
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