Umberto Eco once said: “I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”
He makes a good point. A lot that passes as life doesn’t make sense and is rarely fair. We all have to face difficulties and make decisions that we don’t want to make. We somehow get by and face another day.
Life does not define you, it’s the way that you react to it that does.
Imagine, if you will, that you’re happily married with a son. Imagine that you’re hitting a career high. Imagine that you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and have six to twelve months to live. How would you react to that?
For me, that’s not something I have to face and I hope it’s something you never have to face.
I stumbled across Brian’s blog recently and have found it a bittersweet insight into how one copes with an awful and unavoidable truth. Less a depressing liturgy and more a philosophical awakening.
Read it and try to learn from Brian’s experiences.
“He who has a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
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Interesting you should post this…
A very good family friend has been feeling ill for the past year, but he never went to the doctor as he didn’t have any medical insurance. Finally, about two weeks ago, it became unbearable and he went to the Emergency Room. He was diagnosed with stage 3 Leukemia.
I’ll be sure to send that blog his way. Thank you.
A close friend of mine has leukemia, she’s only 17 and has a year to live. She seems to take it incredibly well, but i think she just doesn’t think about it. It’s a shame as she’s a wonderful person.
We’re encouraged not to think about this stuff and, as a result, have hypnotised ourselves into believing that death is something that happens somewhere else. And I do believe that’s why we have the profoundly empty society we find ourselves in.But as Matt’s very insightful post shows, you don’t have to be in my position to understand and think seriously about issues like these. And it’s not about being morbid. Quite the opposite, in fact. Things – even little things – can be so sweet, so intense. Can you imagine how amazing my son’s smile is to me now? (Of course, it also breaks my heart.)
Brian! Welcome to my blog.
Hopefully I’ve widened your audience a little.