Heart Attack.
Deep Vein Thrombosis.
Throat Cancer.
Diabetes.
Stroke.
Car Crash.
The list above contains events or conditions which have stricken friends of mine in the last 12 months: all, to some degree, life-changing. It's very VERY scary - each individual case, in its own right, for obvious reasons: one doesn't ever wish to see such ailments, and their potentially devastating effects, visited upon peers, loved ones...anyone in fact. But what gives additional pause for thought is that all of those conditions (apart from the last one on the list - hardly a condition, but I'll come to that in a moment) have hit people of a similar age to me. In some cases slightly older (throat cancer, heart attack, diabetes). In the remainder, people younger than me.
That shocks me in all sorts of ways. Too close to home. A recognition that I've (we've) reached the age where these things are starting to make themselves known.
The last one in the list is something which I was involved in, earlier this year. In the event, I consider myself lucky: I escaped practically (if not completely) unscathed. I have a few slight residual problems to contend with, but they're fading, minor, little more than an inconvenience. Less than two weeks off work. A few seconds or a few inches either way, and it could have been a very different story. But in the event, I was very, VERY lucky.
I don't take that outcome for granted, and the uncertainties that some of my friends are now facing make me feel that nothing should ever be taken for granted, as such.
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5 comments:
It's so good to see you still posting! I've always loved (and looked forward) to them. I hope you can soon find time to do this once again. :)
I'm thankful you're OK after the car crash. You're a wonderful and special friend. As for all of the other "bad" things touching your life - I wish them better and far away from you soon.
Warm embraces,
Alexandra :)
My brother had an aneurysm that began to hemorrhage - slowly. He survived, thank God.
It got my attention very quickly. I reached an age where I may run into Death in Samarra.
You have the most difficult "Please prove you're not a robot" test I have ever seen !
One of the many variations I saw was the word "Geâts" with a bloody circumflex on the "a"! Since this was Beowulf's clan, I thought it grossly unfair.
Young housut – hei.
I, too, like Alexandra, as well as Montag, no doubt (hello, both), am glad to see you again. Obviously, not glad about the subject matter of which you speak. Your list is shocking to say the least – and whilst you say you escaped lightly, I am most shocked by the fact that you had such a horrendous close-shave experience – as I know you, even though the word "know" is flavoured with the ether of blogland.
Life is dangerous – and we are all very, VERY lucky to be here. In a sense, I guess, we should all be treating it as a miracle, every day, every moment, but as it is all we have, we tend to find it a matter of course, precisely because it is so fundamental. I think. When this fundamental matter becomes under question, the human animal shakes and quivers. What else can it do? The knowledge that this is the fate awaiting is the curse of our species. When this becomes the daily experience, as you say – no longer taking the continuing of life for granted – the normal everyday existence can become quite … different, to say the least, and not necessarily filling one with gratitude and a sense of miracle to be here. More like a continuous sense of fear.
I think I may be sounding like I am somehow "in the know" when I'm not really – I'm sorry if I sound like a know-it-all. Just, you know, my thoughts, and they are with you at the moment, as I write.
There isn't really anything I can say that isn't platitudes, though heart-felt. Hope you recover quickly – physically and psychologically, although the latter may be harder to achieve, given how it has been for you, evidently: the smack-bang of the underbelly of life, hitting you head-on. Hope those around you recover, inasmuch as it is possible.
Signs and I have taken to blethering a bit in the way of the Olden Times, and you cropped up in our conversation quite quickly. If you feel like a bit of silly distraction steeped in friendship, you know you can always come to our doors (I know I speak for her here, too).
x
Thanking you all most kindly, and sorry I've been so quiet. Just things, stuff, etc. Putting things back into balance.
Ms MR, I will pop over and see what's what, and also reply properly, in due course. Which could be today, or next week, but I wanted to acknowledge and say thanks, given that your comment had sat on my blogger dashboard waiting to be published for a number of weeks.
x
Alexandra, no I'm hardly posting at all - as is obvious - but always appreciate you popping over here :)
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