Quote Originally Posted by waterbear
WOW! Don't know what else to say except that I hope and pray that all turns out well. I know if it were a member of my family I would be a freaked out nut case!
Thanks for your concern. But, I'm not sure we look at it quite that way.

I'm probably more accustomed to thinking realistically about probabilities of fatalities than most people who aren't actuaries.

Madison, my older son, nearly died of asthma when he was 3. Every week, I give him an anti-allergy antigen injection, after laying out the ampules of epinephrine, reminding myself of the dosages for anaphylactic shock, and mentally rehearsing what it would take to get him into the car, if he collapsed before he got there. We've known one person who died of allergy shots, and known of another. So the risk is there, non-trivial, and familiar.

From what I can tell, the risk that quite a few of us will die of bird flu within the next three years is greater than most of the risks we've been discussing. (Here's an interesting CDC page: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/qa.htm )

[Wheep! Wheep! Wheep! WARNING: Philosophical content ahead!]

Death is closer, and always more inevitable, than most people seem to like to think. Sometimes, I think the entire purpose of mass entertainment and sports is to distract us from the reality of death.

But it's close.

A year ago, this past Sunday, my 20 year old nephew died in a car accident. This past Saturday night, within an hour of the the anniversery of his death, a 17 year old member of my church, and current 'main squeeze' of one of my nieces nearly died in a very similar accident. I haven't seen the car yet, but his mother told me that David was stunned on seeing the car for the first time in daylight, that he was still alive and walking. Tuesday a week ago, a elderly man I've known for 20 years, who had been a member of my church for over 50 years, died suddenly. This past Saturday evening, his wife of 60+ years also died; my wife worked at the church most of yesterday morning, arranging a post-funeral meal for his family.

It's always close.

The question is, does either life or death mean anything? The conventional educated answer today is, "No, it means nothing!" Macbeth's madness has become the common sense of Western intelligentsia.

But it seems to me that mass entertainment is the answer to the question, "How can someone believe that and keep on living?" I think it's not merely a coincidence that "escape" has become such a key concept for marketers describing 'entertainments', including pools.

I'm exceedingly grateful that the answer, "Nothing!" is not one either of my boys accept, or live by. In the past, it was thought by many that if the worst thing that could happen in your life, was death, then you were dead already.

I agree.

[END Philosophical content. Sorry. Sorta]


Ben