Human happiness is conditional; suffering is a given. No matter how rich we may be, no matter how intelligent, no matter how kind and good, at some point life is going to grab us by the lapels, give us a shaking, and take us down.
It’s a Wednesday, and you arrive home to find the one you love collapsed on the bedroom floor. The rescue squad brings her to the hospital. Now she lies in neurological intensive care with a brain aneurysm, her skull shaven, kept alive with breathing and feeding tubes, monitored for heartbeat and brain activity. Surrounding her are other patients, many of them unconscious from blood clots in the brain, blows to the head, or some other trauma.
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
The Megaphone of Pain, Suffering, and Nobility
America’s First Psychiatrist: Dr. Benjamin Rush
Making Your Burdens Blessings: Changes in Attitude, Changes in Fortitude
Epoch Booklist: Recommended Reading for Nov. 28–Dec. 4
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times