There is always somebody worse off

As you know, well those of you who've been this way before, I'm not religious. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate why people need something to reach out to in times of need, nor does it mean that I an immune to the greatness of religious architecture, art and music. But there are times when I do question what 'it' is all about.

When I visited London at Easter and went to the Gilbert & George exhibition there was a brief quotation from them along the lines of "when a man (or woman) gets up in the morning what he decides to do next is the first step of justifying his existence for another day." It seems quite a harsh statement in the cold light of day but sometimes you do wonder if some people should have to go through pain and suffering just to fulfill that justification.

Next week would have been my brother's 45 birthday and don't worry I'm not going to go back over old ground but I couldn't help thinking about him more intensely than normal (if that's the right expression) this week when I visited a clients. It was their year end at the end of March and I go along each year in April to make sure they run their accounting and payroll year ends correctly, it is a very successful photographic business run by a husband and wife with one part time assistant.

As usual we made small talk about the past year, the hopes for the next year, holidays etc. The husband then asked if they could buy a laptop for the part time assistant to use at home while she's recovering from her operation.
"Sure," I replied, "this Government wants people to work at home, what's the operation?"
"She's having a heart and lung replacement."
I didn't know what to say. The young lady is in her mid twenties and she has a condition that has affected both the organs that need replacing.

It's going to sound really morbid and probably selfish but my mind went back to March 2004 when my brother was told he had to choose between having a lung removed and possibly living only six months. He asked the doctor whether it would be worth it to which the doctor replied, "Yes, because it will mean you can see you wife and children grow old." Well as we know he only lived another eight months.

I just hope that Jane gets the best treatment there is and that she recovers well enough to lead the sort of life we sometimes get fed up with when things aren't going for us. Because whilst life may be full of little annoyances and irritations on a daily basis it is probably better than the alternative.