frailty, thy name is "human"

   I was sick for a couple of days this past week. Nothing too serious: stomach cramps and "problems," some fever, fatigue, and back-ache. Probably a minor virus I picked up from licking a cat or some such thing.
   But when I get sick, it always happens that I realize how frail I am. This minor little bug kept me in bed or lying down for nearly a day and a half. And I'm an otherwise healthy, active, kickass young man! As I was trying to sleep the first night, I was stuck in the tortuous limbo of the moderately ill, where I couldn't sleep, but nothing was comfortable. I longed for either oblivion or stimulus - anything to relieve me from stewing endlessly viscerally in my own infirmities.
   More accurately, I wanted to know that I wouldn't feel this way forever. Because at 3 am, when you've been turning and sweating and shivering and aching for the last hour, time nearly stops. As much of a non-sequitur as this may seem, it got me thinking about the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. I recently finished reading Schindler's List, and I honestly can't understand how the survivors eked out an undaunted will to live. Here I was after suffering from a minor illness in the comfort of my well-stocked home for less than one day, and the thought of my troubles continuing was nearly unbearable. But the Nazi victims had a much more severe and indefinite time of suffering. I think I would crumble under any similar sort of treatment.
   Ok, so back to my main point: people in my age-group and stage of life (mid-to-late twenties, yuppies) don't tend to think that their lives are fragile. And yes, I have the approval to speak on behalf of each and every one of them. Illness aside, I'm lucky I haven't died from any number of close calls, for example while riding a motorcycle or driving a car (no, Mom and Dad, I won't give you any specifics); while hiking or climbing where I shouldn't have been; while horsing around near a pool...
   Perhaps that's another reason why it can seem extra tragic when one of my peers passes away. Not only was this person full of potential, his or her life cut short just as it was blossoming, but the poor soul probably had no idea how frail she actually was, though the evidence was there.

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