Fragility

Fragility

The link

Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.

~ Norman Cousins

What it is

Norman Cousins was a journalist, author, and medical researcher. He was editor in chief of the Saturday Review of Literature for thirty years.

Cousins was a well-known peace activist and an advocate for nuclear disarmament. He received the Albert Schweitzer prize for humanitarianism in 1990, months before his death.

What it means to me

This post isn’t about the quote.

Over the weekend, dear friends of mine gave birth to a daughter two months early. It’s a tiny miracle of a girl, weighing a kilogram. She is surrounded by wires and tubes and blankets that weigh a multitude of this, to keep her alive.

Newborns always look too good to be true to me: barely large enough to be functional, yet with a complete person inside. Equally humbling is the medical science required for this baby to be born, and to keep her alive. We are lucky to live in a time where she can grow up to become herself.

This is a good reminder that life throws curveballs, and doesn’t care about your plans. Career planning, personal development and literary criticism are noble pursuits. They are still insignificant when people close to you get hurt; let alone when the one hurt most doesn't know what 'hurt' is yet. I am all in favor of showing your scars - if you're strong enough to form them in the first place.

Money, science and technology are tools. Watching them work together to save someone beautifully fragile is awe-inspiring.

Thank you.


Leonard