A man gives up his seats on an airplane to a couple who is desperate to be on the flight. Some family crisis troubles them, but then the plane goes down. Some individuals who should have been up on the highest floors of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, were stalled by some mundane detail that day and their lives were spared. What does a parent do with statistics when their child is born with a rare disease that is known to affect only 17 other people worldwide? These are some of the most perplexing scenarios and there seems to be a hidden nugget of truth in them if you are brave enough to plumb the depths of such painful questions. I am not deep enough or clever enough to know what I would make of these moments or how others should respond, but it's tragically "human" to be able to cipher these ironies and suffer the feeling of being really "Blessed" or the polar opposite, "Why Me?"
The brevity and beauty of life is easily dismissed by some I am sad to say. When a person is given the favor of good health, looks, or placement in favorable circumstances and still grouses about it all, or squanders that favor on bad choices (Amy Winehouse or Lindsey Lohan), it causes the rest of us to be fooled into a belief that looks something like this, "I would never be wasteful like that," or "My children know better." I am guilty of thinking that there are likely to be no ripples on the surface of our heretofore peaceful life in our own quaint little pond. I know what the smug satisfaction of "Blessed" feels like. The funny thing about the ripples in life is that they can and sometimes do drag us down, but being an optimist is one of my most treasured traits simply because without it I am a wimp who would be tempted to let despair take to strong a hold. Life is short and when one blessing seems in danger, cling to what's left. God does bless His children with good and perfect gifts. Just don't let this world define for you "what" that perfect is.
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