Tonight, in the Spring Grove subdivision in Peoria, Il., a group of people held a praver vigil for an eleven-year-old baby girl who died as a result of injuries she sustained in a fire on Wednesday, December 26. It was about 1:00 am, and the fire - its origins currently unknown - tore through the house in the suburb. Five people made it out, and the baby - little Anariah West - was in her crib as her grandmother sustained severe burns as she made several futile attempts to get through the flames and smoke to get to the child after rescuing another granddaughter.
Two dogs also perished in the fire - one of the dogs was found by the firefighers who rescued the child with its body curled around her. He died trying to protect her. To paraphrase Tom Clancy, 'That dog earned his place in Valhalla, and that's for damned sure.'
The firefighters revived Anariah en route to the hospital; sadly, she passed away soon after.
She had one year. One Independance Day. One Halloween. One Thanksgiving Day, where she probably sat happily in her chair as her family gathered around her.
She had one Christmas. Bright, sparkling lights, a glimmering Christmas tree, toys that made her wide eyes shine with happiness.
I look back at the past year of my life; trust me when I think back and say that - for the most part - it was truly unpleasant. Long story short; it was as if after everything I've done over the past eight years amounted to absolutely nothing, and almost everyone I know has turned their backs on me to let me drift in the wind... as if the last eight years of my life were a big joke that they all enjoyed. While I was doing the things that they couldn't or wouldn't do (and some of them actually came right out and said was my duty to do, and that I should put put my life on hold to do it), once it was over, they all decided in unison, 'Well, since we don't have to worry about that, or those people needing to be taken care of anymore... we really don't need to know you anymore." After a while, if you're not careful, you could start down the road to bitterness... or, at least get more than a bit pissed off.
Then, I look at the fact that this baby had only one year.
Back in college, in the 1980's my favorite comic was a book called Strikeforce; Morituri. The tagline was 'The ultimate power. The ultimate honor. The ultimate sacrifice.' Set in the mid-21st Century, the comic focused on a process to give people superpowers to help fight off an alien invasion of Earth - but with three provisions:
1.) Only a very select few are eligible biologically for the process.
2.) There's no telling what powers will be created by the process.
3.) Within one year of being subjected to the process - you will die.
The premise could be encapsulated in a single phrase: 'If you knew that you were going to die sometime in the next year, how would you live that year out?' Simply go about doing your job, like everyone expects? Act out in ways you'd never consider if you weren't in this position - and if so, they why didn't you do that before? Make every day could for something in a way that means something to you, and to the people around you - the people that matter to you most of all?
If I were to die Monday night - December 31 - I'd feel slightly ashamed. I did a couple of things this year that I can feel proud about, but for the most part, I spent it trying to balance myself on the event horizon of existance... like most of the people out there in the world today.
This baby, though... she spent a lifetime with eyes wide open, soaking in a world that she found larger than life, with every day a Ringquest, every room a New World, and every time her family took her somewhere in their car - it was a trip through the Delta Quadrant. I listened to her family talk about the kid. She gave them purpose, and love, and a new view on the world around them.
For one year, she gave them a reason to smile every morning.
Not a bad epitaph for a tiny little bundle like her. We should all be so lucky, someday.
http://www.week.com/news/local/12848712.html
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2 comments:
Hrm...I'm going to have to send my answer to your question via snail mail. :)
If I were to know that I only had one more year to live, I hope that I wouldn't be spending any of that year at work. On the other hand, I also hope I wouldn't spend the year in existential terror, like Faust waiting for the clock to strike midnight, when the Devil comes to claim his soul.
But it's true -- we think that we have all the time in the world, where time is the one thing money can't buy. I've had two people I felt were good friends run out of time; hopefully, they are either in a place where they have time to spare, or have at least returned to blissful nonexistence.
I once heard it said that there were two ways to live life: the first is that if you have some great talent, then use all of your power to become famous. The second is that if the first isn't an option, to lighten the load for everyone else as much as possible.
This has been a rotten year for you, and it's a shame to see you so callously treated. I hope that 2008 brings you something better.
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