Funny Things

Boston commuter rail.

Funny how things turn out. So much can change in the matter of a week or the matter of a day. Playing flag football yesterday, I was reminded just how fragile we humans are. I collided at full speed with a fellow teammate and my left side felt extremely strange after. The hypochondriac medical student in me immediately jumped to the conclusion of POSSIBLE RUPTURED SPLEEN! and I continuously palpated myself and poked and prodded for the entirety of the afternoon. As soon as you know the possibilities, the things to be worried about are endless...

What if in a friendly game of flag football I just so happened to twist my leg in the mud and blow my cruciate, rendering me unable to run or walk or ever be at the same level of physical activity ever again? There go all the future half marathons...sacrificed for easy treadmill runs so I don't retear it. 1 second, that'd be all it would require for my tibia to rotate and break one of the few things holding my entire joint together. 1 second would be all it takes to set me back for the rest of my life. Makes you not want to ever agree to a friendly game of flag football...but then...where's the fun in life?

I often think to myself, "Self, if you were really interested in self preservation, you should probably just become a shut in." The amount of ways that we humans can die is innumerable. We have no protection like horns or a tough hide or sharp claws or super speed. We have a brain which is often muddled and stressed or a little bit buzzed and behind the wheel. We err often, and we err badly. How is it that more people don't die behind the wheel every day, driving around big chunks of metal at 70mph?

How is it that I let myself trust completely in the pilot who is steering my gigantic steel plane at ___,000 feet? He's a pilot, he's got a license. He's been trained. He's got a shiny golden set of wings on his lapel. What if he didn't have his Wheaties this morning, and he just wasn't flying at 100%? These are our lives on the line, and yet we trust them to other humans on a daily basis.

The scariest of scenarios involve those people who date someone for years and years only to find out that their husband or wife is a serial killer or rapist or any manner of badness. How does one ever trust again?

This weekend has been full of deep thought. I've driven around just for the drive, listening to quiet, droning music and sipping at Jim Hortons. Things have changed so dramatically in the past month that I'm almost glad to sit and study Transmissible Gastroenteritis for an hour. It's straight forward, and right in front of me, and I'm comfortable and safe in my desk chair. There's no mud to slip in, no cars to collide with, no plane at ___,000 feet. Complete safety. But then again, there's always the chance that I contracted Eastern Equine Encepalitis from a mosquito drawn out in this 80 degree freak of a day in Michigan and I'm ticking down the day until I lose brain function.

You'll have to excuse the morbidity, ignorance truly is bliss. Tomorrow's post will be different.