"Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them" Epictetus Greek Stoic Philosopher AD 55-AD 135.
I was travelling to York Monday evening on the train from Manchester. The train scheduled for 17:11 was cancelled due to bad weather. The waiting passengers were not happy and frustration swept the platform. This frustration turned to anger, which turned to hysteria as the replacement train arrived with less seating or standing space than the waiting passengers required. The mass shove began as people clambered onto the rain and I found myself swept away by the tide of bodies onto the train squeezed between the doors and a large young man.
The long, slow journey commenced and given the proximity of everyone conversations were unusually free flowing. Sadly people were still angry and the conversations were not those I wanted to indulge in. Thinking of something to do I looked down and noticed that my very tall ‘neighbour’, Alan, was on a crutch. I asked him what happened and to my amazement he explained in a really buoyant and chirpy manner that he was recovering from major surgery which saw the removal of his knee and parts of his femur. The story was a necessarily long one which had Alan describe the very rare form of cancer [Spindle Cell Sarcoma] he had been suffering from. Cancer at such a young age and to such a healthy young man seemed particularly cruel. I was so humbled by Alan’s story that I told him how remarkable his attitude to the illness and his disability was. He looked at me, paused for a while and seemed a little puzzled. He eventually replied “I suppose so but when you’ve looked death in the face you have only two choices. You can either fight and make the most of what you've got or you can give in”. “Besides” he said “I’ll get almost 90% of a functioning leg back, I’m still alive and I have a great girlfriend so that makes me lucky”.
Unlike the frenzied commuters Alan made a conscious choice not to be disturbed by the challenges he faced and instead chose to think of himself lucky. Alan is a very courageous man. Not because the way he has fought his illness but because he's dared to take accountability for his own responses to life's events. I applaud him and ask you "how will you choose to respond?"
