Aug 21 2003
Miracle?
Two words that are, in my nit-picky, linguistics major opinion, horribly overused are ?genius? and ?miracle?. I don?t believe I have ever encountered an actual genius in my many years on earth. Geniuses, to me, are the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci and Thomas Jefferson, not movie directors or fashion designers, for example, to whom the word is so meaninglessly and frequently applied. True geniuses are rare by definition.
The same applies to miracles. But unlike geniuses, I may have witnessed a miracle.
My mother is not only still alive, but she is visibly doing better. She is no longer on constant oxygen, and can even walk around the house. The doctors and nurses are amazed and at a loss for an explanation (though this is the usual state of the medical profession as far as I can see). Two weeks ago, all her vital signs indicated that she had days left at best, and she seemed to be dying before our very eyes. Hence all of Mom?s children assembling at her bedside, the trip to the funeral home, and all that.
But Mom is full of surprises, and this is a big one. We know it?s still a matter of time, but it looks like more time than we thought.
No-one understands why she has gotten so much better. Maybe it?s all the thoughts and prayers that have been coming our way from all over the world. Maybe it?s just a phase in the illness. Maybe it?s a miracle.