Introduction
The piece “In celebration of being alive” portrays a new dawn of understanding of human life after he met with an accident.
Is there divinity behind suffering?
Christian Barnard was a Doctor who performed the world’s first human heart transplant operation. He found the suffering of children particularly heartbreaking. During his lifetime, Christian Barnard and his wife met with an accident while they were crossing the road. His eleven ribs were broken and lung was perforated. His wife had a badly fractured shoulder. Both experienced fear and agony in the hospital. He totally disagreed with his father’s view that God tests human beings and suffering ennobles a person.
A life changing event
His brother died of an abnormal heart. This incident brought awareness to Dr. Barnard of the sufferings of little children. Several years ago. Dr. Barnard witnessed an incident at Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital. That event made him realize that he was missing something in all his thinking about suffering.
Grand prix in the hospital
While he and his wife were undergoing treatment in the hospital, one day a nurse left a breakfast trolley unattended. Two children who were patients took charge of the trolley. One was blind and the other was crippled. One of them played the role of a driver and the other played that of a mechanic. The blind boy provided motor power, and the crippled sat on the lower deck and steered the trolley. The rest of the patients laughed and gave shouts of encouragement. The nurse and the ward sister finally took control over the situation
Harsh truth about the heroes
The mechanic was a seven-year old boy who was admitted in the hospital due to serious bums on the upper part of his body and lost both of I .eyes. The driver had a harmful tumor and his shoulder and arm were amputated with little hope of recovery. Both did not lose hope. They enjoyed life despite its stings.
Learning life’s lesson
These two children taught Dr. Barnard a profound lesson that the business of living is in the celebration of being alive and not just something for pleasure, amusement and recreation. They made it clear that being alive is more important than the suffering they are experiencing. They made him understand that sufferings does not ennobles humans but celebrating life inspite of the sufferings makes it noble.
Conclusion
People try to understand life always with their own experiences. Only when a misfortune strikes, they look at life from a different angle. They may have scars but then they understand what makes life noble.