The whole Natasha Richardson bang-on-the-head/bang-you're-dead episode has me scratching my own oft banged-up head. I mean, a perfectly healthy young (and yeah, 45's young) woman takes a minor spill on a bunny slope, the kind of thing we've all done in some fashion over the years, and within a couple of days the young woman is dead. How can this be? Was it the way she hit her head? Did she hit at exactly the wrong spot - 1mm one way or the other, and she'd've been fine? What separates what happened to Natasha Richardson from all the times I've conked my head?And you know. I have a tendency to knock my head around. Remember the episode at Tabla last year, when I fell down those hard wooden stairs, banging my head on every single one of them? Ended up with lumps on the top and the back of my head. Yet, here I am, alive and walking around.
In my 20's I took a terrible fall while ice skating at Colony Square Rink in Atlanta. I am (or was, then) a good ice skater, sure-footed and balanced. But on a turn my blades got tangled up in each other, and BAM! I hit the ice with full force and speed, the back of my head hitting the ice with same force and speed. It was a close call. I was woozy. A huge knot grew on the back of my head, and while I didn't bloody the ice, little spots were just under the surface of my head lump. Did I go to a doctor? Nope? Was I sort of dizzy for a few days? Yep. Still, here I am, alive and walking around.
Those are just two examples of how my poor head has been abused by my innate clumsiness over the last half-century. So how is my head (or my luck or my various landings) different from Natasha Richardson's? Was the Cosmos just ready to fold her back into it and that little fall provided the perfect opportunity? Just wondering.
Of course it's of no use to look backward on my head-conking incidents (and they are legion). But the next time I knock my head into something, will it be one bang too many? Or should I just take comfort in the fact that I'm just too damn hard-headed for that sort of catastrophe to befall me?
Perhaps I should always wear a helmet.
3 comments:
That was such a shocker. I can't say I'm a frequent head-banger (not to tempt fate, or anything), but it does make me think of all the times that Thomas has taken a tumble and a quick rub and a "You'll be fine" are all he gets in the way of medical attention (not even a 'kissing it better' anymore).
It just doesn't bear thinking about.
But we can't live our lives in hard hats or helmets all the time...
I know! I can't even bear to think about the number of times poor Kate was handed a cube of ice as the head-wound cure-all! But, you are right - we can't live in helmets. Yikes. I'm going to carry on under the assumption that the Natasha Richardson thing was just a really sad fluke.
Well, we're grateful you're hard-headed! In the nicest possible way!
Post a Comment