This will be quick: I’ve just returned from a book discussion group. One of the participants had been absent for months – she had undergone cancer diagnosis and treatment. The good news is that the cancer was removed and she has been deemed cancer-free – no follow-up chemotherapy or radiation needed.
The not-so-good news is that the Marine Corps unit of her son-in-law was ordered to a second term in Iraq. He was part of the initial deployment in the second Gulf War, survived it, came back to the U.S. and stayed on as a reservist. He is now on active duty and planning the logistics for his team which will be re-deployed to Iraq in September for a seven-month tour.
As you read this over the weekend, think about that woman and her son-in-law . . . and of that other woman – the wife being left behind. Perhaps that long commute to work; the long wait in the check-out line; and that exasperating manager at work aren’t so unbearable after all. Maybe all those other inconsequential episodes of life that can bother us so much are nothing compared to the ravages of a cancer gone wild, or of a man getting his ticket punched for a second tour in Iraq.
Possibly your life is pretty good.
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