And some do everything they can to ignore it or avoid that fact.
Screw around and got pregnant? Take an abortion pill.
Your wife is gorked and needs extensive rehabilitation? Starve her to death.
Can’t stop feeding your pie-hole? Get your stomach stapled.
Grandpa shitting himself? Put him in a nursing home.
I haven’t been on this planet very long, but I have seen, experienced and thought about a lot of things and there is no doubt in my mind that much of our trouble today in this world is caused by our attempt to make life easy.
All these attempts fly in the face of the natural order. The very roots of Buddhism recognize that life is difficult and as a result, painful. Other religions do as well, but none comes as close to accepting this fact before moving on to transcending it.
Okay. So you accept life is hard and downright painful much of the time. What do you do about it? You do what my sister Sharon has done.
My sister Sharon is the eldest in our family. Whenever the rest of us screwed up, she was the one who cleaned up the mess without saying a word. Whenever someone needed help, she was there. Sure the rest of us complained about her. She should have had a bigger home. She was a lousy housekeeper. But when you were in a jam and realized how important your family mattered, she was the one who saved your ass without rendering judgement. Her love was – is – unconditional and I have learned more from watching her throughout my life than any of my other sibs.
Just over a year ago, her husband became seriously ill. He had a stroke and ended up in a coma for three weeks. You would have thought that his hospital room would have been a place of whispers and tears as everyone waited for the inevitable.
Instead the TV was on. There was always at least two people in his room talking to each other, chatting on the telephone and to him. The room was loud and alive as people who hadn’t seen each other came to pay their respects only to discover that if God wanted her husband he would have to go through Sharon first.
And do you know what? He eventually recovered. Is he the same man? No, but he is able to function even though the right side of his body is paralyzed. Most importantly, he does have a quality of life. It’s not the one he had before he had his stroke, but it is one nonetheless.
And it is thanks to my sister Sharon. She has helped him to walk. She brings him with her shopping and on errands. Instead of hiding him from the world, he is part of it. Her life is not easy, but she has never complained. She has even begun taking better care of herself because she knows that her husband needs her to be healthy.
She continues to be the most grounded, mentally healthy and happy member of my family. Life may be hard, but she faces it head on, her shoulder to its harsh wind. She will not run away from it; she will not let it beat her down. She simply endures.
She is the complete opposite of Michael Schiavo, but will you hear her name on the lips of news anchormen? Will you see her name in the headlines? Of course not.
Life is difficult but it’s no excuse to become difficult yourself. It’s an important lesson, one that Schiavo and all of his supporters have avoided.
