Saturday, May 16, 2009

Sore knee, a sore thought

I have now been nursing a sore knee for a little over a week. A slight pain crops up when putting my weight on my right knee while bent, and that has kept me from doing the things I indulge myself with on a daily basis - tennis, cycling, running, rock climbing, swimming, racket ball and squash. Pain in not more than a square inch of my body has altered my lifestyle this week. All this is just a discomfort - I can walk about perfectly well and still do those things if I ignore the pain. This is still hard!

I was watching this show -think it was "I shouldn't be alive" on the Discovery - a wildlife ennthusiast spotting rhinos in an African desert crashed his plane, shattering his legs and his pelvis. His feet were swollen inside his boots and he struggled for two and half hours just to get them off; he believed that if he didn't his legs would need to be amputated; he said his life would be not be worth living if he survived. That didn't sit well with me though.

I can relate to the feeling of being so passionate about something that losing it makes life feel worthless. This past week comes close; admittedly though I have a good chance of bouncing back in a week or two. But still I asked myself this - if were to be that I could not do any of the things I so love and am accustomed to, would I want myself dead?

From this side of the shore, it sure is hard to tell how that would change the philosophy of things - but I hope there would be more to life - to keep going, with new purpose  and new meaning.

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