This week has certainly provided us with a front page view of life and death situations. It is exceptionally rare to watch a case of life and death unfold in such a way in front of millions of viewers with the outcome still not being known for days. The fact is that Damar Hamlin is still in intensive care as I write this. He is awake and able to speak to his family and friends. He remains not out of the woods yet.
Football is a dangerous sport. If that lesson has not been already taught to society, one would hope it is now. With the understanding of blunt force trauma and concussion protocol, it would be safer to say that we should be amazed that this sort of event has not unfolded before now. In fact, I would take it a step further. We should be amazed that we haven’t watched someone get killed on the field by now.
I have spoke on this subject before in other angles. What does it take for society to give the same emotion for the commoner that they do for The Queen? Its not meant to undermine the young man fighting for his life nor the outpouring of support given to him. It is to ask why we rally around the headlines and leave the page 11 problems for those who know the person on page 11? If a person selling beer in the stands at the game would have had a heart attack and required medical attention would the game have stopped? If one of the officials would have suffered a heart attack, then what?
It is just a game. We can agree on that. Asking someone to block that out of your head and continue doing what you are doing. In life, we ask that of others everyday. If a fellow officer is gunned down while in the middle of a shootout, no one comes in and calls timeout and resumes the shootout 2 days later. A military mission does not end when a man goes down. The fire doesn’t stop burning. The world does not stop spinning. One would hope that there is a message that we can find within that thought process.
Life is the most precious commodity we have. Our next breath, our next thought, our next move are never truly guaranteed. It is exponentially greater for those who are on the front line of life. They are tasked holding back a tide of terror and uncertainty. I think we owe it to those who do this daily to keep a closer eye on them. Watch and honor them in a way that makes one understand the fragility of life.
This week became one giant support group for a man you never met, never spoke to and most likely did not even know his name until Monday evening. We went out of our way to stand beside him and hope that his life would be spared. What a wonderful world this could be if we could do the very same thing for every person who doesn’t have national media coverage or an audience with The Queen?
The Beaten Path 