Our lives can change in the blink of an eye. We can go years and years feeling comforted in the idea that bad things only happen to bad people or that bad things only happen to other good people. Young and old, many of us are coddled by decades of uneventful goings-on, thinking we walk on the fortunate side of the barrier between safety and danger.
Because that barrier is a thin veil of illusion, the most drastic changes come with no pomp and plenty of circumstance. This is a devastating reality to have to face when one is least able to do so. Our wounded servicemembers, those injured on the job, and anyone married to and/or the parent of an injured person knows this. And BC's own Jet in Columbus and Richard Marcus know this. The road to hell is paved with the many things we don't know ahead of time and the lessons we refuse to learn from those all too familiar with the fickle hand of fate.
Wills, living wills, and life insurance abound and can cushion the blow for our loved ones should we not survive an accident, attack, or illness. Few consider the provisions necessary for surviving the same. Those who volunteer in nursing homes, rehab centers, hospitals, veterans hospitals, active-duty healthcare facilities, nursing homes, or with the myriad of help agencies across the country stand in the very doorways an injured person does well to find months after they've been injured. Knowledge of resources and how to work the system is crucial and best sought out while one is able to do so unencumbered.
The odds that we as individuals will traverse this life with nary a need are very good. Add spouses, children, other family, and friends to the mix, and the odds drop through the floor. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who is battling more than their injury; they are battling for the basics: shelter, food, and peace of mind.
Prevention is big business. From baby gates to airbags, from helmets to home security systems, gizmos and gadgets have flooded the marketplace in an effort to protect our loved ones and ourselves from our own world. Self-defense classes can be had with one phone call. Wellness programs and neighborhood watches have cropped up from Seattle to Sarasota. All are trying to avoid that which could halt us in our tracks and change our lives forever.
Article comments
1 - Bliffle
Severe misfortune could befall anyone. When it does a wider support system than oneself is required to alleviate the dire consequences.
In Olden Times, and still among some remote peoples, family and tribe supplied that support.
In the modern Industrial Age, wherein we sought to sunder employee from family to increase flexibility and productivity, we tried to provide that support through new social mechanisms: the Corporation, the government, and insurance contracts. Indeed, one of the vital steps in moving from The Old to The New is to sever family ties and strengthen institutional ties. The Institutions, whether Corporation, Civil Service or Government Welfare were positioned to take the place of traditional family and tribe.
But the new system isn't working. As economic managers became more adept at wielding their institutional power to browbeat mere individuals with their greater power, and to manipulate contracts thru legal technicality, and to secure their institutional legal requirements and protections thru suborned public officials, those institutions were able to escape the responsibilities they had assumed on the way to destroying traditional family and tribe social safety nets. Sort of a Bait And Switch routine.
Some few of the citizens were canny enough not to fall for the common propaganda and realized that eventually they would be betrayed by Persons In Charge, mere venal mortals, after all, and knew that only Personal Wealth would protect them. That's one reason people get Very Rich: to limit their own risks. And that's why there is no end to their greed: there is no end to fear.
As for the rabble, it usually works to Blame The Victim: if a person contracted lung cancer from working with asbestos, blame him for taking the job in the first place.
Where will it end? The way most human endeavors end: in war, massacre and destruction. Just as the allegiance to family and tribe have been so easily destroyed, so too the less palpable abstract allegiance to State and Nation, religion and ideology, will be destroyed.
2 - Jet in Columbus
Diana, that went straight to my heart. My compliments and I hope you help a lot of people with this.
Love Jet