Life deals some major perspective
 

A family in my town, including a friend of my son, got hammered by Sandy and has been living in another town while the massive flood damage to their home gets repaired. The father is dealing with stage 4 cancer. 2 days ago, their 15-year old son (my son's friend) died of a sudden illness while on a HS band trip to southern California. Kid was the nicest most polite kid going. I can't even begin to imagine the plane ride his parents had to take out west.

Unfathomable....

Absolutely horrible. That kind of story just leaves you speechless.

Best wishes to that family, and to your son who I'm sure is struggling to understand this.

Exactly why my perspective on happiness has changed. I used to need good things in my life to make me happy. Now I'm happy when my family, friends, and I don't have anything bad going on. I don't look at boring or mundane times as negative, I see them as time without grief.

Wow... that is just brutal. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child. And with everything else on top of it, it's got to be soul crushing.

God bless them. They are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Holy f*ck that’s brutal.

We had a major scare with our daughter who had a life saving surgery when she was 8 days old. That memory is seared in my brain forever…These kind of stories send chills down my spine.

Thoughts go out to your kid..

I give myself another 10 years or so before I'm exactly like this.

Sorry shakin. Unreal.

Kind of with you on this. I've readjusted what makes me happy; simpler pleasures with an occasional indulgence. Perhaps that too will change over time. I got dealt a sh!t hand, so...

Sorry about this, Shakin. Certainly is a tough thing to process, even for someone who isn't directly affected by it. I hope your boy is able to come to terms with this and process it as something that will only make him stronger as he grows up. Horrible series of events...

THIS! Where's the LIKE button.

Both my daughters are grown, one is out of town and when the phone rings I always ask..."Everything OK"???

Thats more important than anything else.

Geez, that's a complete disaster. If I may ask, how did the kid die on the band trip? No worries if you don't want to talk about it, shakin.

My heart goes out to the family. Devastating to say the least.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...192180891.html

+1....You need to focus on the good things in life and they may very well be simple and ordinary. I can only imagine that the family Shakin is talking about would give anything to have a boring evening at home with everyone present and healthy.

My wife always seems to find the negative in things and trying to get her to change her perspective. Its a lot of effort to be constantly angry/upset at things.

Even on this board, I look at the anger that is so pervasive on the Strip and laugh. I'm pretty sure I qualify as a die hard Jet fan, but I just don't see the point in getting your blood boiling to the point that you want do bodily harm to someone who is on the team you root for.

I couldn't agree more.

Apparently he started feeling sick on the way out there, but didn't want to say anything. Pneumonia is the rumor kicking around. Just a super nice kid and probably didn't want to ruin anything for anyone. No drugs or anything like that, he was a straightlaced kid. Ironically being too nice might have made the situation get to where it did. Too early to say for sure what really happened.

I have the same sort of perspective, but take the opposite track: I get pissed off when people who should be truly grateful ***** and complain about trivial matters. One person I know in particular does this, taking a small, relatively minor challenge and turning it into what one might think to be a life-altering disaster. It's a terrible, short-sighted, selfish way to live.

Sorry Shakes, read about that this morning.

:(

-

It can take a while, took me decades. I've seen so much horrendous crap - friend went ice skating with daughter , both fell through the ice and drowned-
friend died two days after 40th birthday from brain cancer- parents with daughter on drugs who disappears for days at a time and will most likely die soon- spouses and children that died early etc. etc.

Unfortunately, it seems that the bad in the bad times can be more intense than the good in the good times - so I'll take the not much going on times.

No truer words. But until you've been dealt that sh*t hand, sometimes it's hard to comprehend.

_

Awful. Eternal peace for that poor kid.

Heart Breaking. I cannot imagine.

My wife's aunt/guardian just passed. In 12 days she went from helping us clean the house to dead. She had a cancer that doubled every week. What asweet woman but she was 85. You get over a death in the 80s but nto so much of a younger person.

One of the reasons I like to think football is it takes you away from negative realities. I need to focus on life being a gift.