I Am a Lucky Man, or Blessed, or Both

My cycling friend, "Duke", sent me an e-mail message after he saw the "crash" post: 

Glad you’re ok and thank God for helmets! 

He thinks I sent him back a "well put" response; maybe it is "well put". 

I am thankful for helmets because of a fall from a few years ago. 

This fall is unusual as well as "lucky" (because it could have been a LOT worse).  Unusual because my helmet never hit pavement.  My shoulder, knee, and those two fingers took virtually all the impact.  There is a tiny bit of "road rash" (more like "carpet burn") on my left elbow, but no hip abrasions, no other places on the leg or foot or ankle. 

Those two "bloody" fingers, though, were quite dislocated when I looked down at them immediately after the sliding around stopped.  If zero (0) degrees indicates the fingers pointing straight ahead like they are supposed to, and 90 degrees indicates pointing at the next finger via an unnatural sideways bend at the second joint from the finger-tip, each of those fingers were pointing at about 60 to 70 degrees. 

I felt some extra sensations (PAIN) in my fingers, and looked down, and immediately thought "great, I've broken and ruined those two fingers for the rest of my life."  Still in the semi-shock, I reached over with my right hand to the left index finger to test what I might feel, and the finger immediately snapped back into position.  So I tried the second finger -- same result.  I bent / curled and uncurled them even before beginning to "sit-slide-shuffle" on my butt off the road.  It didn't phase me at the time.  Several hours later, however, the thought of how those fingers looked in that state of dislocation made me shudder.  Makes me shudder just to write this.  But, perhaps having written it once, I'll not have quite the shuddering reaction the next time that picture pops into my head.

All in all, I came off VERY lucky or blessed.  My injuries are nothing compared to Snapper's "scratches" from a few weeks ago.  And no one in my life has needed heart surgery lately.  Mother and brother, previously, yes.  Wife, ever, no. 

Another brother has just completed his first, and hopefully last, LONG series of chemo treatments for testicular cancer; he has twin sons aged about 12 or 13 (it is hard to keep track from 1000 miles away).

And my baby sister lost her husband 2+ years ago after a nearly four year fight against cancer during which neither Cathy nor Al ever complained about their situation, except to each other; they obviously decided to give their two kids, aged 4 months and the other 3 years when the cancer was found, as near a normal life as possible for as long as possible.  Two nicer kids one cannot find.  And Al and Cathy were the perfectly matched couple in a thousand.  If you are are lucky enough to know such a couple, you will understand all that the previous sentence means.
 
So, as you can see, I am personally very lucky or very blessed.  Or both.