A woman in Diafarabe, Mali, holds her brilliant yellow scarf against a deep blue African sky.
One would think that due to an illness, losing the ability to speak for two days would be terrifying. I found this not to be so. In fact, the loss of speech allowed me to see a new perspective on life.
Communications does not stop because you simply cannot speak, No, there are hand signals and gestures, common to those who speak different but dissimilar languages. There is also the written word. In this day of blogs and fast electronic media I found that all this technology makes not a hill of beans to communications. One hunkers down to that which is base and familiar to human nature. Losing the ability to speak allowed for a rerouting of a different communication channels. Writing slows down the process but seeks to sharpen the clarity of the word, and this can only be a good thing. “Chatter” or useless words are eliminated.
As an illness takes you away, you find your life slows down, reduced to the minimum level required for living. One, by necessity, simplifies not only possessions but attitudes. That which is important is magnified, and that which is not, is clearly thrown out of focus.
There are clearly elements of benefit to being sick, though while you are undergoing the process, is not entirely appreciated. If you live through this, what will you change and how will you live? If you die, what regrets would you have?
All such thoughts and answers should be, of course, answered in the realm of the living, where steps can be made to change your life for the positive. While I cannot deny there must be some benefit to thinking about these issues in the realm of the dead, because of lack of experience I must defer to the future. Those who live are given the near mythical “second chance”. To change or to keep status quo, no one can say they were not given the benefit of the doubt.
