When I was ten years old, I contracted a salmonella infection and nearly died. I ran 106° F fevers and spent two weeks in the hospital. Before going to the hospital, I remember lying in bed and hearing religious Christmas music inside my head. At first, I thought it was the fillings in my teeth picking up a radio station. Transistor radios were new back then and most young science nerds had a vague idea of how radio waves could cause crystals to vibrate reproducing the sounds they were carrying. The problem was that it wasn't the Christmas season. I then decided it was somehow a product of my high fever. It did sound like angels singing.
Modern science saved my life. I was allergic to penicillin, but fortunately, a decade earlier chloromycetin, the first antibiotic to be produced synthetically on a large scale was introduced. It saved my life. Did God arrange for this fortuitous timing?
If you believe that God is responsible for everything, the obvious answer is yes. If you believe the universe is just a fortuitous accident, the answer becomes that you have to be kidding. The Universe doesn't care about you. If you believe in the multiverse, well then, any answer is possible.
At the time, I had no idea. I was just happy to be alive and was pretty sure the fillings in my teeth were receiving radio signals. I wonder what you think.
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Pretty Sure I'm Dead
General FictionWhere in the secret to life the universe and everything is revealed. Who says entertaining writing has to have a story, or a plot? Why can't it be just a stream of consciousness, some interesting episodes from one's life, some regrets revisited, s...
