God it’s Tough in Front of this Computer -Food for Thought

A horror story in the international press the other day as I checked up on the opposition got me thinking about a few things.

Firstly how tenuous life is and also just how lucky we are.

Yes I do mean we.

You might be there considering your own mortality and how to put an end to it at this precise moment (although reading this would be a bit of a risk at such a time - even I don’t think of this blog as a sort of scripted Happy Hour) but no matter what your state of mind you are still one of the lucky few, oh blessed band.

I know this because you are reading this from a computer screen, and unless by some unfortunate mischance it is on display in the window of a tekkie shop somewhere cold and dangerous with you sliding down the frosted window after some terrible accident, these being the last words you ever see, then believe me you’re lucky.

Today’s fateful tale came from India.

A waste truck driver was delivering a load to some God forsaken landfill site where labourers toil amongst the muck, seeking waste metal and other goodies from each load of junk.

In the usual scramble to be first, seven people, three of them children, could not avoid being buried alive when the truck slid part way into the pit, tipping its load upon them.

The unknown driver panicked and ran off and by the time rescuers had dug the unfortunates out, all were dead.

So life is, as I say, tenuous.

My reading of that scientific Bible by the wonderful Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything) just lately, doesn’t help.

By the time old Bill has finished quantifying just how insignificant ones life is and the frankly miraculous fact that you are even able to read this or indeed anything else, one is wont to turn to either:

a) God

or

b) the bottle.

So as we move to what for many of us is the festive season, take a minute to consider just how lucky you really are.

Take the time to look at the rolling waves, or smell the difference in the air under the trees, you know the sort of moments, soppy stuff.

And thank whatever God (or bottle) you have that you don’t earn a pitiful living working on the dust heaps of the subcontinent for less than a quid a day.

Any one moved by the Christmas Spirit could do worse to take a look at where I sourced this picture.

Comments

[Ben Shingleton]

Ahh, a nice touching Christmas message.... Maybe HSG should start some sort of charity campaign?

[HandyShippingGuide]