Colin,
Did you know that according to the CIA database (ref), the United States ranks #176 in the world in infant mortality rates? That is out of 222 ranked countries. Not too bad really...could be better, but could also be a lot worse. In Angola, ~176 out of every 1,000 live birth infants die. For the USA, it is ~6 in every 1,000. Given a choice in the matter, I will take the latter.
To make the numbers a bit more personal, this equates to 1 out of every 167 lives births that an infant later dies. Those are pretty good odds of something not happening when you think about it. If 167 people bought a scratch off lottery ticket, you could pretty much guarantee that you would have just donated a dollar to your state lottery...same goes for those 50/50 raffles. Heck, if given no other choice, I would stand in front of a firing squad with 166 other people and take my chances that the one real bullet was not for me.
So, how in the world did I hit this lottery? Why did I finally have to draw the "lucky" freaking number this time? For all the stupid, hurtful, otherwise unkind things I may have done in my life, did any of those bad moments deserve this as a life lesson? Maybe it is the two straight days of gray skies and never ending rain, but today I am ticked off about you being the 1 in 167 that had to die! I think your Daddy is going to buy a lottery ticket today. Why not? I already "won" one lottery, why not two?
I just miss you a lot more today than usual.
Love,
Daddy
Steven,
ReplyDeleteI hate being a number as well. I hate being that "1" one of "something". Its just not fair to any of us or our childern.
Let me know if you need anything. I know days like these are tough. I wish I could help more. Take care of yourself.
Ernesto
BTW-Great pic of Colin and good luck with the lotto!
I don't like those numbers at all.
ReplyDeleteI had a neurologist tell me the other day that the numbers don't mean anything when it's your child. It's like we've won the worst lottery ever.
ReplyDelete