Summer's Gone

I always think that this is the saddest time of the year. It has been a long, very hot Summer here in Spain with record numbers of visitors from other countries. Terrorists have driven many people to our shores and more Spaniards have stayed home to take their leisure in the mountains or along the beaches, so Spain has had a very good year indeed.

The thing that has blotted the picture was the attack along Las Ramblas in Barcelona which was totally senseless. Sixteen people dead for no reason and people from 34 countries impacted to prove what? Spain as a country cannot take an arbitrary action of simply throwing out all Muslims but individual Spanish patience is well frayed. It seems to me to be down to the Muslim community itself to control its bad apples less they all have to pay the price.

There is always a bad side to a wonderful Summer and that is so many people died on the road just getting from one place to the other. I'm convinced this is not necessary. In so many cases the cause can be put down to just plain stupidity or irresponsibility. If you are the driver when you arrive at your destination with your car filled with your family, you do not join in the fun by drinking alcohol or taking drugs. You are the one charged with the responsibility of getting everyone back home safely. That's your job! Your family are depending on you and no one else can do that for you.

We often hear of the statistics that note how many died and how many were injured. If only there were some way in which the lives of those people who were left behind could be documented so that the pain and the effects of the death of the one who died could be shared by the community as a whole.

We see the flowers that are left by the roadside to mark the spot where someone died. Many years ago I regularly passed a spot in Torreviejo where I noticed that the flowers were constantly changed for fresh ones, so I tried to meet the person who was changing them. I finally did meet the lady who turned out to be the victim's mother. He was a young boy who lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into the wall. It was a single vehicle crash that led to his death. No mother should ever have to bury her son, especially under such circumstances.

For her life stopped for both of them at the same time. She was obliged to continue to be animated and to go through the motions of living but in reality she was as dead as her son. The only thing she lived for was to bring her son flowers and to communicate with him. She didn't take the flowers to his grave because that was not where his soul was; his soul was where she thought he left it, right there on that bend in the road.

I am aware of one of those people who contribute to the injured statistics. In many ways those who die from their collisions are the lucky ones. Those who suffer life altering injuries bear much heavier burdens. Some are life sentences, as in the case of young men who ride fast and crash and who are left paralysed for life.

There is a man who crashed into a car, or perhaps it was the other way round, but he is left in a body brace where he will remain for at least two or three years. I think I would have preferred to have simply died and have done with it. What he is left with can hardly be called life, although his family would disagree.

We will wait for the grim news yet again while at the same time giving thanks that those of us who are alive and uninjured made it through another season of enjoyment.

Be careful out there.

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael