Food for Thought and Thanks

[Aramike]

Perhaps this is a downer, but I feel compelled to share this story. It has literally been eating at me for most of this week. I don't expect a lot of responses to this, but I hope it makes someone stop and thing about how precious life really is.

After Thanksgiving dinner, a close and dear lifelong friend told me a very chilling story during a conversation about giving thanks. In fact, I loosely recalled hearing this same story years ago - perhaps immediately after it happened - but it did not have the same effect. Maybe the details were more illustrated this time around, or perhaps it just didn't hit me.

In any case, a few years ago my friend was on the bad side of town (Milwaukee) late one night for business, and on his way home, decided to stop at the drive thru of a fast food joint that was supposed to be open, as evidenced by advertising and signs on the establishment's building. He waited and waited for someone to respond to the speaker, but no one did.

He drove off.

The next day, he was contacted by the police as a result of video from the restaurant's drive-thru cameras. Apparently, the reason no one responded to him the previous night was that there was an armed robbery in progress.

So ends the details of the story I remember from years ago, and so begins the details that have absolutely haunted me since learning them on Thanksgiving.

Evidently, at the time he was sitting in the drive thru waiting for someone to take his order, the robbers had the joint's staff in the back, and were in the process of murdering them, one by one. Strangers, to be sure, but not all that different from anyone else.

And that just hit me. I can't explain why, but the simple thought of that struck me right in the gut, Murder is not a terribly uncommon crime in any large city. But really, I can't help but think of a group of people going to work, merely to make a living, and just resting on their knees waiting to die at the hands of someone who decided to kill them, just because.

It really gave me pause and perspective - life is precious, and it can end merely on almost ANYONE'S whim, for any reason, for no reason, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. Surely those victims didn't go to work that day anticipating that it would be their last day on Earth. But it was.

So that really hit me ... hard. I can't help but think that, one day perhaps, it will be me, or someone I love, will be in a position where we are faced with the knowledge that we are about to unexpectedly lose our lives. It literally sickens me to think of the moment in which I'm about to depart my family, and we will never be able to see each other again, and won't even have the priviledge of saying goodbye - and for no reason other than "just because".

And, to be honest, despite that sick feeling, I had to give thanks. Everyday that myself or one of my loved ones are not a victim of such senselessness, is a day worth being thankful for.

That is what my Thanksgiving meant to me. Each day is another precious chance to be taken, and while I always intellectually knew that, it only really emotionally hit me now.

Sorry for the long story, but that's the sum of my Thanksgiving. It really hit me at home, and I only wish to giving someone else something to think about and be thankful for.

[Sailor Steve]

Wow. I don't even know what to say.

[Jimbuna]

A thought provoking story.

Live each day as it comes, life is too short and you will never know what lies in wait tomorrow.

A close friend of mine has faced death just under a dozen times and she's only 20...

The world is hell.

[Reece]

Certainly an eye opener, very tragic, your friend can be very thankful that he didn't go door knocking there, or been 5 minutes earlier/later, could have easily been another victim! We can all be very thankful!

[Skybird]

Every next day is an uncertain day. Live now, neither stick to the present nor waste it senselessly. Don't stick to life, nor do adore death.

And Aramike - just move beyond that story. It's over, and your part in the story is over as well. Life's what it is, good and bad things happen, and nothing lasts forever. We do not suffer because life is so changing and diverse and uncertain, but because we try to make the good things stay forever, and attach ourselves to them. but that way we do not live with life but somewhat against it, you see.

Try to not misunderstand me. I know how you feel, by own experience, really.

[JU_88]

What can I say, I hope they catch the f**kers and I hope they get the chair in your State.

[magic452]

A very similar thing happened to me last year.

There is a small PC store in the local shopping center.
It isn't usually open on Sunday but as I went by I saw that it was.
I went in and talked with a tech that I know well, had helped me on many occasions. he told me to bring my machine in on Monday and he would have a look.

Monday I went to the shop and found out that about 15 minutes after I left, the store was robbed and the tech was shot and wounded. Fortunately the gunman was a terrible shot, out of 3 shots at very close range he only hit my friend in the leg. He recovered almost completely, has a small limp.

The store owner did everything could to help my friend and that is why I only shop there.

It just shows that bad things can and do happen to almost anybody.
You try to put it out of your mind but it can be difficult.

Magic

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Every next day is an uncertain day. Live now, neither stick to the present nor waste it senselessly. Don't stick to life, nor do adore death.

And Aramike - just move beyond that story. It's over, and your part in the story is over as well. Life's what it is, good and bad things happen, and nothing lasts forever. We do not suffer because life is so changing and diverse and uncertain, but because we try to make the good things stay forever, and attach ourselves to them. but that way we do not live with life but somewhat against it, you see.

Try to not misunderstand me. I know how you feel, by own experience, really.

I'm not really stuck on it in the way you may think. My point is more that, in a very odd sense, we've all seem to become desensitized to much of the violence in this world. For some odd reason or another, this one hit me ... and I think that's a good thing. Makes me more thankful for the moments I have.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by magic452

A very similar thing happened to me last year.

There is a small PC store in the local shopping center.
It isn't usually open on Sunday but as I went by I saw that it was.
I went in and talked with a tech that I know well, had helped me on many occasions. he told me to bring my machine in on Monday and he would have a look.

Monday I went to the shop and found out that about 15 minutes after I left, the store was robbed and the tech was shot and wounded. Fortunately the gunman was a terrible shot, out of 3 shots at very close range he only hit my friend in the leg. He recovered almost completely, has a small limp.

The store owner did everything could to help my friend and that is why I only shop there.

It just shows that bad things can and do happen to almost anybody.
You try to put it out of your mind but it can be difficult.

Magic

Very true. I'm glad to hear that your friend was okay.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by JU_88

What can I say, I hope they catch the f**kers and I hope they get the chair in your State.

For sure ... I think they caught them but no capital punishment here!

Hell, I'd even take hard labor. But instead, 3 squares a day, no bills to pay.

[Letum]

Like Winston in room 101, I betray all the suffering millions in the world
by being thankful that the things I fear most are happening to them and
not me or those I love. However, it's a thankfulness laden heavily with a
survivor's guilt: why them and not me?

As Aramike says: murder is not a terribly uncommon crime in any
large city. In any large country it is normal and in the entire world it
is mundane, as is torture, starvation, rape, war, madness and the
innumerable other horrors that happen every second of every day.
It makes it easy to lose sight of what it means when typing from a
warm, safe house with a full belly.
If it doesn't make you feel ill; you're either a monster or enjoying the
bliss of ignorance. If you're not thankful that it's happening to
someone else you don't know, rather than your self; you're a saint.

[ETR3(SS)]

Something I've not shared with a lot of my family and friends, is an experience I routinely had while I was in the Navy. I was a radioman on a SSBN. I'm sure you all know the mission of a SSBN quite well. Being a radioman meant being the first to know, even before the CO knew, and that is quite the burden.

The one thing I always dreaded was the "End of the World" scenario. I was assigned to monitor the HF scanners for EAMs. Eventually the scenario progresses to the point where you stop hearing from StratCom and CJCS. Then the HF scanners fall silent. Hearing nothing but static on the scanners made me stop and think...everyone's dead, my family, my friends, everyone not on this boat or any other boat at sea is dead or dying. It's been three years since I got out and I still can't set my car radio to AM.