Post by mikeq on Jan 27, 2017 12:12:03 GMT -8
I amble along through life, doing this and that and finding pleasure in many things. There is so much to focus one’s mind on, so many universal mysteries and practical truths. Everything feels good, and everything feels right … and then it suddenly hits. You have broken your neck or your back and things are far from right. Things are not right at all. For a second or two — a lot more if you’re going through a bad patch or you’re hospitalised — you are chilled to the bone. Yep, chilled to the bone. That’s the only way I can put it. A horrible shudder ripples through you. You are part of the world but you are separated from it in a most horrible way. You are dependent on others. You could not survive a catastrophe. But then somehow these thoughts leave your mind and you are back ambling along through life, happy as ever. But there is a darker side to the picture I have just painted. Most of us on this website are blessed. We are blessed but few of us think about it (maybe we all do but I've never seen it written). God help people with spinal injuries in war-torn countries like Syria where medical care is practically non-existent, hospitals turned to rubble, basic commodities like wheelchairs and medical supplies and appliances — such as catheters and drainage bags, antibiotics and dressings — unobtainable. I am lucky. Yes I have a devastating spinal injury but I am lucky. I live in part of the world where I can get the medical help I need. There is somebody out there dying of a treatable urine infection, dying because he or she lives in a part of the world where healthcare is non-existent. I don’t know them personally; I may never meet them and that is awful. 'Out of sight, out of mind'. It's as if they don't exist. But I think of them. I think of them and I feel such sorrow. Yes, despite my neck injury I am blessed.
