Why me?

I dunno, piffka. I kinda think maybe her cranky 'tude toward the tea is sort of like a symbol of what kept her alive - no stinkin' earthquake's gonna kill her!

The scary part is that she stayed alive that long and in somewhat good health. Can you imagine the thoughts that would go through your head for nine days, wondering if someone was going to find you...or not?

Don't you love it? Beth, you're right... that attitude probably kept her alive. She was just doing "her job" which she's likely done all her life... pointing out short-comings. I imagine the tea cooled off quickly, it is supposed to be bitterly cold there.

Yep, Colorbook -- it is enough to make you pause and think. Were those nine days of hell worth it? I suppose the answer is YES, but she needs some happy times ahead. From what I've seen and read, they won't be had in Bam. Such a horror there.

Wow! I guess you don't get to be 97 without being tough...

.... & cranky!

That's what I want to be when I grow up!

Which to me again says we will go when it's our time . Not before and not after. It is ordained.

Ordained? Ordered by the divine, established by command?

I think things happen and they're frequently a surprise. As for an ordained plan, well, if that were so, then why did nearly 30,000 Iranians die in the same earthquake? That was also ordained? It's not a good idea, imo, to blame the serendipity of life on an intelligence who has "ordered" it. That intelligence would easily seem too cruel. I like to think that our God is nearly as surprised as we are at how things work out.

If you are lucky enough to be like this woman and beat the odds, then you just about have to think of yourself as someone special... someone who ought to take more care in what you say and do. I do think there are people who seem naturally lucky. This story also says to me, do not give up... one of the best gifts in this life is hope.

Well, goddammit, if I was 97 years old, had to wear hideous clothing and live in Iran, and had just spent nine days buried under rubble and then some young whippersnapper tried to burn me with hot tea, I'd complain, too!!!

Pifka


Can you say with absolute certainty that it was not?

Eva -- <heehee> How true is that! He probably didn't even warn her it was boiling hot.

Au -- Of course I can't say anything like that with certainty (and furthermore, I didn't). What I did say was if some higher intelligence felt the need to willy-nilly kill off 30,000 souls in a terrifying earthquake, I'd seriously question the motivation behind that decision.

We need to have a good talking-to with that higher power of yours. The weather's all gone to hell.

Piffka & au1929

How about this perspective...God doesn't create/cause every action in the world...He knows it will happen and has the capacity to change events...but some He choses not to change...perhaps this was one of those situations...and as to why, well that is beyond our scope of comprehension.

And if you want to argue this last point, consider this: can you comprehend that the universe is endless? Can you picture it in your mind? Everything in our experience is finite. I, for one, can't wrap my head around the endless universe thing. How can something go on forever? Apparently it does, but to try to envision "endless" is just impossible.

Caprice -- I really don't hold to any belief in fated actions or premeditated deistic overlording. I think there is a way and we are all on that way muddling along. What I was thinking when I started this thread was... if I were this woman, how would I feel? The only thing I'd be thinking is, "Why Me?"

Of course, after such a senseless experience, the poor woman must be half-mad with post-traumatic stress and life-changing sorrow for all those killed. Remembering back to 9/11, there were many people who wondered "Why me?" I feel a lot of pity for this woman -- I wonder what she is doing now?

As to envisioning infinity, someone said that it may be possible to fully grasp it for a moment, but then you go insane.

The Dao De Jing says:
The space between heaven and Earth is like a bellows. The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.

And also:
There is something that is perfect in its disorder
Which is born before Heaven and Earth.

So silent and desolate! It establishes itself without renewal.
Functions universally without lapse.
We can regard it as the Mother of Everything.

I don't know its name.

Hence, when forced to name it, I call it "Tao."
When forced to categorize it, I call it "great."

Greatness entails transcendence.
Transcendence entails going-far.
Going-far entails return.

Hence, Tao is great, Heaven is great, the Earth is great
And the human is also great.

Within our realm there are four greatnesses and the human being is one of them.

Human beings follow the Earth.
Earth follows Heaven
Heaven follows the Tao
The Tao follows the way things are.

Piffka



That sounds kind of like an old wive's tale. :wink: Although it does make me a little squirrelly thinking about it...which is why I try not to!

To answer your initial question, I would imagine it's quite a normal response to question "why me?"...although I would also imagine that question wouldn't come up at the moment she was rescued. After all, at that point she wouldn't know that there were so many who lost their lives. If I was in her shoes I know I would feel thankful, but that's about all I could feel certain about. Having gone through a few life experiences of my own (nothing that traumatic though), I know one can never fully predict their reaction to a given situation until you go through it. I too wonder how this woman is doing.

I know this is off on another topic, but when you mentioned 9-11 survivors, I couldn't help think of an interview I saw with one survivor months after 9-11. His description of some of what he saw was so vivid it was disturbing. What I find even more horrifying is just how much worse it had to have been to actually have witnessed what he saw. It still troubles me when I think of it. How he was able to describe it without breaking down is beyond me.

Caprice -- Seeing this image boggled my mind and I haven't been the same since!

STAR INCUBATORS
"These eerie, dark, pillar-like structures -- part of the Eagle Nebula -- are columns of cool, interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that serve as incubators for new stars." from Hubble 1995



I don't know how the 9/11 survivors could manage to stay sane after that. I guess it shows that humans are more durable than we can imagine.