Thursday, May 03, 2007

Fleeting mortality

I had an unexpected email in my box this morning. It was from my mission's web master, announcing that a returned missionary had died recently. Intrigued, I read the letter and found out that the guy had served from 2001-2003, making him only 24 years old. Last Tuesday, he was struck by lightning! After being on life support for a few days, he finally died! Talk about the very definition of random. What made it even more shocking traumatizing was that there was a link to his blog... holy crap! That could have been me... especially given my history! (Let me elaborate):

A peculiar Norwegian missionary custom involved placing the outstretched thumb and pinkie to your forehead to act as a lightning rod. When someone you're talking to uttered something unforgivably damnable mildly blasphemous an hysterically funny religious observation, just in case God was REALLY pissed at what they'd said you'd make that sign to avoid the collateral damage that a lightning bolt would probably inflict. Needless to say with my cynical attitude, irreverence, and penchant for satire, people around me were always protecting themselves. Needless to say, I never got struck by lightning, but God did get back at me by placing me with this one companion for four months who made my life Hell. Several times during that period, I would have wished for lightning!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: "...involved placing the outstretched thumb and pinkie to your forehead to act as a lightning rod."

Is that why you coiffe your hair the way you do; to ensure lightning rod coverage 24 x 7 x 365?

The Practicalist said...

We were only companions for a couple months... did it really seem like four?