Tag Archives: inconvenience

Coma

Coma: (n) a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a prolonged or indefinite period

Vigilant.

It is the most frustrating, mystifying and perhaps unachievable emotion available in the human heart–to continue to pursue a path of behavior and passion with no evidence that such devotion will ever guarantee success.

When my son was in a hit-and-run accident, he suffered a severe brain injury which placed him in a coma.

I was very young, and not just in years. I was young to the idea of inconveniencing myself.

Even though television portrays dutiful family members staying by the bedside of their loved one who is in a coma, the TV dramas only dwell in that lonely, still room for thirty seconds or so.

The silence is maddening.

Some nurses told me that people in a coma can hear, and others said there was absolutely no medical evidence that the patient has any awareness of the outside world at all. I stayed by his bedside.

Minutes were hours.

Hours, days.

And the days seemed like years.

I hated it. I felt like I was putting on a show for those around me by perching next to the unresponsive body of my young son, pretending to create a connection.

To my regret, I often slipped away early or arrived late.

A coma is when a human separates from us before drawing his or her last breath, letting us know how fragile life truly is.

My son finally did emerge from his coma, only to live in a vegetative state for about six years. The only thing he gained was an obvious function to feel more pain.

A horrible experience.

At times I have tried to glean some value from it, but ultimately, in my more cognitive perceptions, I declare it darkness.

 

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Beacon

Beacon: (n) a fire or light set up in a high or prominent position as a warning, signal, or celebration.Dictionary B

Flashing lights.

No one likes them.

I suppose they’re okay on a Christmas tree. But if you’re in a room for a long time and the decorations are too garish, it can become annoying.

We were taught that flashing lights warn us of danger or at least, pending inconvenience. So I guess we need them.

Yet by the same token, a world without flashing lights is a sudden discovery of disaster without any way to prepare or avoid it.

Therefore a beacon can be one of the more unappreciated necessities in the world. They appear in our lives at a very early age.

For instance, you’re five years old. The first snow has fallen and you want to run outside and play–throw it in the air and maybe make a snow man.

You are stopped.

A beacon–your mother or your father–steps in and feels the need to take at least ten minutes of your precious snow time to don you in garbs which inhibit your free movement, all because they want you to be warm and not get sick.

Who knows if they’re right?

It isn’t like you can look back and say, “Yeah, because I wore my ear muffs and toboggan, I avoided a cold.”

No, it’s just an annoying flashing.

And then, when you become a parent and find the need to “beacon out” some piece of wisdom or counsel, you suddenly realize that you are the annoying, flicking going on in the life of a child who loved you moments earlier, until you interrupted the flow.

Case in point: I just finished seeing family for Christmas. One of my jobs is to be a beacon.

That means if I see something that could be ridiculous, dangerous or lead to unhappy conclusions, it falls my lot to flash out a warning.

God, it’s horrible.

For you see, everybody wants to be a cheerleader and not the director of the cheerleaders, who has to decide whether the skirts are too short.

Yet a world without beacons would probably end up being one big explosion of light, producing destruction instead of intermittent blinking.

 

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Accept

by J. R. Practix

dictionary with letter A

Accept: (v.)1 consent to receive 2. agree to undertake 3. give an affirmative answer to

What do I accept?

Even though I concurred with the above definitions, accepting something has another ramification for me. It requires loyalty.

We have too many people who accept things in life only to turn their backs on them when the least little difficulty challenges the concept. We often are more afraid of inconvenience than we are of failure. Inconvenience is inevitable, since we live on a planet which refuses to follow our will. Failure, on the other hand,  is optional. Failure is a decision to turn tail and run instead of taking the time to learn and evolve.

What do I accept?

1. I accept my personal responsibility to encapsulate the best possible human behavior I can conjure within the confines of my own skin. In other words, I have no intention of blaming you for the world’s problems because I plan on staying too busy in reformation.

2. I accept my family and friends as those who have joined me on the journey. They are no better than any other human beings–just closer in proximity.

3. I accept the law and order around me as being the best we can come up with at this point until wisdom shows us a better way.

4. I accept that there is a God because the absence of such a being leaves us with a godless world.

5. I accept that I am not better than anyone else. I am also on a path to prove this daily.

6. I accept that there is a natural order to life and when I learn the precepts of the organization, I can prosper. When I don’t, I have an immediate reason for my incompleteness.

7. I also accept Jesus as the best example I’ve found to explain why human beings are here and how they should get along. And also, since I am sometimes a bit lost and hapless, I will also receive him as my savior.

All these seven acceptances do not make me perfect or even qualify me to speak my convictions aloud with authority. They are just ways for me to set a solution in motion–and remain loyal to a cause instead of constantly bitching at the cosmos … because it deters me.