Saturday 31 January 2015

Saber-Tooth Tiger Survival 101

I really wanted to name this one "Survivor" (you know, after the Destiny's Child song) because after last weeks post I felt a bit of an old-song theme starting, but I realised it would look far too melodramatic.  Anyway, hum a few lines with me ...

I'm a Survivor
da da da make it
la la la la la
dum dum dee dum dum

Rightio - back to the serious stuff.

A few weeks ago I wrote about feeling lucky.  And I mentioned the ectopic thing.  And I don't want to harp on about it again and again and again, but then I thought, that I do think about that day a lot.  All the time in fact.  And it's not in some "oh poor me" way, it's just reliving some small part of the day. And I could talk about it all the time.  I don't though, I mention it on here more than in real life, but if someone does get me started then I'll just keep going until they fall asleep.

I thought it was just me.  A Liffey-ism.  Until I was in the kitchen at work talking to 2 work colleagues.  One who's just recently come back to work after being quite ill.  It turns out that they both had very similar conditions - and they started comparing stories and discussing treatments and side affects and all sorts.  I was walking away leaving them to it, when I heard one of them say "I could talk about this stuff all day".

And it made me think.  These 2 people had survived something quite scary and mean and deadly.  They were survivors.  And they were sharing their survival stories... finding the parts that they had in common and the parts that were different.  It's so strange - you'd think that after going through horrific experiences that people would want to move on and forget, and I'm sure that lots of people do have that approach, so why do some of us want to ... not dwell on it, but just keep remembering?

It could be that we're self-absorbed and just like to talk about ourselves (she says writing a blog all about herself!), but I don't think that's it.  I think we want to share our experiences because we're saying ... "We Beat Death".  And yes, that does sound overly melodramatic, but it's true.  It's kind of a big deal don't you think?

Maybe the same types of stories started when we were cave men discussing tips on how to get the better of the neighbourhood saber-tooth tiger.  Without those stories, we might not be here today.  So if you've gone through something craptastic and you want to share - I say go for it.  Don't go crazy and shout your story from the rooftops (unless that's your thing), but talk talk talk about it.  It will probably make you feel better - sharing always does.  And who knows, it might contain the one tip that keeps the human race going for another 100 000 years.

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