This morning on CNN I saw two disturbing news stories. Well, there were more than that, I mean I was really disturbed by the guy who drove into a tornado just to videotape it….but there were two stories that really touched me.
There was the story of the American swimmer who died in the last leg of the Marathon Swimming World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Fran Crippen, 26, was in excellent health and hoped to be an Olympic swimmer. He is said to have died of fatigue. There is some speculation that the water temperature was too high and that may have had something to do with it.
The other story was that of Lucas McKaine Ransom, a 19 year old college student who was bitten by a shark while surfing and died. He was surfing from a beach on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California when an unprovoked shark attacked him.
Two more young, healthy men, cut down in the prime of their lives. Or possibly before they even hit the prime. Is there any sense in this?
My heart goes out to their families and friends who I am sure are shocked and suffering. I don’t really understand why I had to go through this or why they do either. Their loss, like mine, seems impossible.
If being young and healthy can’t protect you, what can? I’ve already blogged about how afraid I am for if and when my children develop an interest in running. Swimming is an interest I’ve fostered in them; do I need to be afraid of that now? I know we can’t live in a bubble, but it’s my job to take care of them. How do I do that in this unpredictable world?
I think that the tragedy of being a parent is that along with all the happiness that kids can bring, parents also acquire the possibility of unbelievable sorrow and pain. It's a gamble. I know one of the reasons I had two kids was because I thought my life would be over if I only had one and something happened to him. Now that I have two, I realize that wow, instead of feeling more secure, I've just doubled my chances of feeling that pain and sorrow. My personal belief is that I can't (and shouldn't) protect them from the world, but instead work on giving them the tools to make good decisions. I am already worried about high school-- what to do if my kids want to play football. I'm planning on stunting that possibility by limiting exposure when they're little (i.e., my thinking is that if they don't play at the PeeWee level, they'll be less likely to play when older)-- but part of my worries about killing off or failing to help develop a skill or ability that they have that does allow them to do things that I don't want them to do. What if they would have been happy playing football? Should they have a right to experience a possible head injury? So for me, I'm planning to say no to football, but yes to other stuff that I judge to be less risky. And I'm hoping my child will be smart enough to know he can come to me with facts and a good argument about why they want to pursue some passion, and I will have the capability to let go of my fears and let them live their lives, even if they do experience harm.
ReplyDelete