Three Months

After I broke my arm, one of the recurring feelings that I had was "why me." I told my wife that I felt really stupid for having done it, and she told me to keep in mind that accidents happen. I acknowledged that they did occur, but not to me. I felt stupid, and more than little offended. This was not what I was planning for my life. Not that I'm a particularly organized or focused individual -- but having to spend several months getting my arm to work didn't sound like something that I particularly wanted to be doing.

This afternoon, while I was wandering around the house looking for something to read, I looked at the shelf where I keep books that I've been meaning to read, and haven't quite gotten around to. Sometimes they're ones that sounded interesting in the bookstore, and then didn't sound so great when I was at home. Some are books that I'd started to read, got mostly through, and then gave up on. And then there are the ones that I had put there and simply forgotten about. One of those was Chasing Daylight.

Chasing Daylight is the story of the last three months in the life of Eugène O'Kelly, who learned that he had multiple metastased tumours in his brain. He had three months -- perhaps -- to live. People die from horrific diseases all the time, but dying people don't often write a lucid book about what it's like to contemplate your life -- doing so in a way that paradoxically makes your death the best, most fulfilling part of your life.

I do not claim this level of insight for my accident. But this man's insight makes me think about how I react to things that happen in my life. It's well-written, and worth reading.