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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Reality Check

Someone e-mailed me yesterday, "I know that wasn't the point of your email, but if there were more men like [sic] that out there (read: self-aware, sensitive, thinking), we would have much less of a shidduch crisis."

That e-mailer was very right - forget the shidduch crisis, too many guys out there simply aren't self-aware, aren't aware of others, and aren't sensitive to others, period. But it is times like these that I am reminded of just how good many of my friends are. Case in point: I wrote earlier today about my friend who was having open-heart surgery. Thank God, I hear the surgery went well and he is expected to recover fully. Another friend, however, wrote about it from his - much closer - point of view:
His nervous parents by his side, CYE was calm yet anxious. I remember him saying a few months ago that the only thing he is nervous about is the possibility of not being able to thank all of his friends and family and tell them how much he appreciates them and everything they do.

After walking him to the operating room, I ran to grab a pair of scrubs. I slowly entered the operating room and stood silently in the corner collecting my thoughts. As I watched him connected to the various cables and machines, it suddenly hit me how short life is. Though I know he will most likely make a full recovery, I couldn’t help but think how fortunate I am and how often I take that all for granted.
I think this says an incredible amount about both of them. Read the whole thing.

3 comments:

  1. I believe that many who go through a true life and death situation see life very differently than the rest of the poulation....that is especialy the case while the life/death memory is so fresh

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  2. I'm really happy to hear everything went well with your friend.

    But it is a total reality check, being there, seeing someone come through something like that makes you re-evaluate your life. That post is very close to home for me because my mom has been through that (open heart surgery) three times in less than two years.
    It's hard.

    You get through it but it affects everything in your life. Everything. But you learn so much: things like how strong people are, who your real friends are, how people tick. Which makes you want to be around those who are self-aware, sensitive, thinking, (be it friends, shidduch dates... whatever) and it's disappointing and sad when people who once were considered good friends turn out not to be so genuine. Anyway, this is hard to talk about so I'll finish there before I get too teary.

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