Life is Good

I met a man today who related a story of how he lost is pinky finger.  He prefaced the story with, "this is my daily reminder that life is good."  I hope I can paraphrase correctly.

I was rock climbing with my then 8-year-old daughter.  We were hiking a bit and had stopped to rest at on overlook.  It was gorgeous.  My daughter need to go to the bathroom, so I had her walk behind some rocks to squat.  Unfortunately, being 8 years old, she was getting pee all over herself.  I surveyed the surroundings and suggested, "why don't you just hold on to this rock and sit backward."


She obeyed and started to urinate again.  Suddenly, the rock began to slide forward.  I grabbed the boulder and tried lifting it, but it came crashing down on top of my daughter's head.  I thought I had killed her.  She was bleeding and screaming.  With whatever strength I had left, I lifted the boulder just enough to get her free.  Unfortunately, my pinky finger was crushed under the weight of the boulder.


My daughter walked away with only a few scrapes and bruises.  My finger, crushed, required multiple surgeries, but after the fifth one, I opted to have doctors amputate it.  The finger just wasn't working properly.  


So, I now have a daily reminder that life is good!


I'm sure the shock on my face from his story was clear.  He had obviously accepted his reminder about how precious life is.  I was left thinking, why do we even need these types of reminders?  Can't we just have a little scare to shake us back into not taking things for granted.

I guess some people just have to lose a finger so that others (like me) can hear the tale and be thankful that I have a healthy household with 100 attached, functional digits.