left behind

in my quest for a happier, more uplifting daily life, i came across do one nice thing. it challenges the reader to...uh...do one nice thing per week. visit the site for some ideas if you're interested.

on a not-so-uplifting note, i was talking with another mom at the bus stop and she told me that our neighbors' 4 year old died during a routine tonsillectomy yesterday. even though i have never met these people, i couldn't help but burst into tears. we really take modern medicine for granted. we forget that people die while getting ear tubes put in or from a bad case of the flu. i think that we (speaking as a middle-class american) just assume that everything will be okay if the procedure is "routine," like an appendectomy. i suppose if we lived with the opposite attitude, everyone would be in a big panic all the time.

when something like this happens to a child, i can't help but remember the few times that punkin had near-death experiences - most of them due to my inexperience as a parent. i do not like to think about those times for obvious reasons, but when i do, i just become more thankful that she's okay.

to help myself process all of this (and to do the right thing), i just taped a sympathy card with a gift certificate for free counseling sessions in it to their door. both cars were there, but all was quiet. even the weeping willow in their yard seemed droopier than usual. but this too shall pass - everything does. and sooner or later the parents will see a reason, or at least a good thing, that came out of this tragedy. that's how God works. it just sucks for those of us who are left behind.