you may, or may not, remember my bland declaration that my father has only nine fingers. well, as of seven o’clock last night, my co-worker’s husband is now a member of that illustrious club. the ring finger of his right hand is now gone. poor rhonda is just beside herself. mike is actually fine and joking about it all. he is still trying to sort out in his mind if he could have done anything differently to avoid the machine eating his digit, otherwise he’s coping very well with his new situation. it’s still early, but he’s confident it will one day be very cool.
this makes three serious events which have deeply affected people i care about (dale earnhart’s death and tom’s apartment fire being the other two). sometimes i don’t know how fucking easy my life is. this is just the universe’s way of reminding me to be grateful for all the plenty i’ve been lucky to receive. how can these things not shift your perspective?
what would you do if you lost a finger or a toe? what about your hand or your foot? taking it one step further: would you rather be killed or wheelchair bound for the rest of your life?

6 Thoughts on “just call him “lefty”

  1. wow- tough question. i hope i would value life enough to keep on trucking, no matter what. so, who did Dale’s death affect that you know? are you a racing fan?

  2. heather on February 22, 2001 at 11:09 said:

    it really didn’t bother me in the least, but it did seriously affect debbie here at work. she was a rabid dale fan. “he’s my boyfriend, he just doesn’t know it,” she would say. she has a wall full of dale stuff in her office. actually, a couple years ago, i brought her back a little replica of his car that came with a trading card from vacation. it’s still hanging on her wall.
    when i heard the news i knew she would be devastated. i came in monday morning and she was in her office, crying off and on all day long. everyone knew how much she loved dale, so they were all calling and emailing her with support.
    so, yeah. it’s been a shitty week for people i know. that’s enough!!!

  3. yes, i agree- no more shitty stuff!!!

  4. i think death over wheelchair.

  5. heather on February 22, 2001 at 13:38 said:

    i’m with scott on this one.

  6. yeah, okay. i’m just glad you guys said it first.

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