Overnight Lesson

Now I know how my parents feel each time I am miserably sick. How they must have felt last year on May 21-22, the day of and the day after the marathon, when all I could do was lie on the couch and sip water.

I was so scared last night. Not the kind of "Boo! I just pwned you" scared, but the kind of "Please be okay, pleasepleaseplease be okay" scared. At first, I thought everything was going to be fine, that it was just a stomachache, but then only a few minutes after I laid on my bed, she told me to call 911, a number I had always hoped I would never have to call (except that one time when I was four years old and I "accidentally" dialed just the right three digits and the police arrived within minutes because I had yelled "Mommy!" when the operator picked up). I heard thuds and shrieks, felt anxiety and fear, and told the operator the address and situation, hardly able to formulate phrases, much less sentences. Long story short, soon enough, two paramedics arrived and went through the procedures of paperwork and pulse checking. Then they brought him to Good Samaritan hospital. While the adults were gone, we two kids stayed home, scared to sleep, scared to think of what might have been going on down at the hospital.

Eventually, we fell asleep. Woke up at the usual school time, went to school.

Everything's fine now. He's going back to work tomorrow. Hopefully he will be fully recovered by the end of tonight with some good food and some good rest.

It was so scary, though. I sobbed and wept while she wasn't there, and then while she sobbed and wept, I couldn't, or else the tears would have gone on for more than just one tissue box.

But really, though, what an experience. Now I know that a family isn't just about parents taking care of their children. It is also about children taking care of their parents. It is about everybody taking care of one another. Unfortunately, sometimes, for some families, it takes an experience like this to bring everybody together in one effort and to break barriers altogether.

Same for the world in general. I wonder if people ever think about how unfortunate and how completely sad it is that it takes something as tragic as Hurricane Katrina or the Haiti earthquake to unite everybody and to have everybody start caring for one another. Why can't people be kind to everybody every day of their lives as opposed to just the few weeks a relief effort is organized for a population that has just been ruined by a disaster of sorts? It isn't like the absence of a flood necessarily means the absence of any other tragedy such as poverty and abuse. What bad enough things have to happen in order for people to stop what they are doing and look around and realize that no matter what they have to complain about, it could always be worse?

We lack a sense of community, a sense of togetherness. In our self-centered worlds, we have lost perspective of a united front against true detriments. Over time, this gap between what's best for self and what's best for society has only grown, and while the former has resulted in a number of ingenious inventions, the latter has been largely neglected. But then again, were people ever truly united not just with family but also with community and world? Unity would imply agreement, which would ultimately suggest peace. How is anyone supposed to believe that there has ever been world peace if there exists not even one history book that doesn't mention battles or wars? How is anyone supposed to believe that world peace will be achieved when our attitudes toward everything remain this way?

In conclusion,

eh.