We thought my grandma had a tumor in her heart and it turns out she was born with a small hole in her heart (she was born at home in rural Appalachia in the early 1940s and had two older sisters who died within days of birth, spotty childhood medical care) and her body somehow fixed it. Built up scar tissue until her heart no longer had a hole. She gave birth to two children, lived a normal life and only had this diagnosed in her 70s. How cool is that? How badass is the human body?
My great grandma cut her leg and contracted tetanus in the 1930s and survived lockjaw untreated. It kills about 25% of the people it infects. It’s crazy to me that if either of these ladies weren’t so strong and badass, I wouldn’t be here.
It’s weird to think that your existence on this earth is dependent on a whole lineage of ‘near misses’ going back through eternity. A young lady falling in a stream while doing the washing and managing to pull herself out before her many shirts weighed her down and drowned her. A young man contracting the plague and being a part of that rare population that survived it, living the rest of his life knowing death was so very close. A man being shot with an arrow in war and laying fevered for weeks before his body fought off the infection and he hobbled home to his wife. A little baby girl being so fevered she loses her hearing but recovers and goes on to lead a full life. And backwards further. A young Neanderthal boy breaking his arm quite badly and being unable to hunt but being loved and cared for just the same. A little human girl wandering off and losing toes to frostbite 60000 years ago but returning home to her family and surviving. Surviving.
I actually don’t think that is necessarily true. You’re the product of the strongest communities in your lineage and those who were shown human kindness. You’re the product of midwives making the effort to correct a breech baby and saving your great great great grandmother’s life. You’re the product of neighbors lending their neighbor food in times of famine. You’re the product of the hunter-gatherer tribes taking the time and effort to care for their sick and injured. You’re the product of mercy, grace and the human collective. I think the ability for strength, resilience and endurance lives within us all. There may have been stronger people through history who didn’t have the luck, community and connections your ancestors did.
You’re the product of mercy, grace and the human collective.
