Perspective

I've recently been looking for optimism. It seems I've been looking in the wrong places, however, as I haven't found optimism but I have, unfortunately, found perspective. 

I learned recently that a young man I met briefly who was fighting his own stage IV colon cancer passed away. In describing his last days, the person sharing the news used a phrase that later struck me as the second saddest thing I think she possibly could have said. She said, "At least he lived long enough to see his baby born."

Talk about perspective. I can't even begin to imagine what he must have been going through in his last days, or what his family must be going through now. I tend to be one of those people who thinks that if you're expecting life to be fair you weren't really paying attention in kindergarten, but even I'm finding it hard to get my head around the idea of a soon to be new parent being put into the position of counting down the remaining days of their life at the same time they're counting down the days to the birth of their child. 

How does that Depeche Mode song go? "I think that God's got a sick sense of humor..." Yeah, I think that about covers it in this situation. 

About the only thing that would be worse would be if he hadn't lived to see his child born.

Like I said, perspective. My situation seems a stroll through the daisies compared to that. 

May he rest in peace, may his wife find comfort from friends and family, and may their baby grow up knowing he would've given anything to still be there. And I hope great things happen for that family in the future because, in my opinion, the universe owes them big time. 

Fucking cancer...