Luck is all we have.

 Subject: Luck is all we have.

Most of what matters in our lives happens in our absence. The sickness of a son or daughter or their decision to move away and live elsewhere. The decision to fire or demote you in business or a customer who suddenly takes their business away and financially destabilises you. Friends die or betray your trust, established habits and beliefs become unacceptable and debt is never far away regardless of the care we put into avoiding it.

Our lives are often built on shifting sands without foundation and yet we thrive on assumptions which sometimes have as little worth as a lottery ticket. The glass half full, half empty syndrome is happiness for some depression for others and yet we tinker around in a world where luck is all we have. This is true in terms of health and the disregard we gave our bodies in our mid twenties/mid thirties. The parties, the drinking, all contributed to our maladies in our 70/80s when suddenly like a series of tsunamis we are bowled over by one thing after another. The disrespect for a healthy life style is played out as the ambulance crew plug you into their monitor, “vital signs all good” says the print out but hang on I have just collapsed on the bathroom floor incapable of even rising to my knees as the nervous system shuts down due to infection. I have to applaud the ambulance staff as they strapped this jelly like creature into the equivalent of a vertical trolley to negotiate the stairs. They were superb, as were A&E in Harlow.  I wrote to my GP wishing there were some way to thank them and offset the terrible publicity they get week in week out in our sensation seeking press and media. We have become a nation of ghouls seeking out the outlandish and suggesting it’s the norm.

Anyway all's well and good after a course of strong antibiotics but it reinforces the case of not taking anything for granted.