Life Goes On: Don't Give Up!

It's easy to say, isn't it - 'life goes on'... I've heard similar statements all my life: "she'll be right mate..." "There's always tomorrow...!" "Ah well, that's life". When I truly think about it though, I find that statement to be both flippant and correct.

 

Flippant because it's often thrown out in casual conversation where it's not meant to be taken seriously. For example, I've left my wallet at home when I need it... or I can't find my keys... "Ah well, life goes on". It's not a situation that is going to have any effect on me in the long term.

However, the same flippant statement is also widely used in completely different contexts. My background is in health care, and I have spent quite a lot of time surrounded by people experiencing highs and lows in life - particularly those who are faced with tragedies and have life changing decisions to make, or people whose lives are about to change dramatically due to the loss or severe injury of a loved one.

The way people respond to such situations varies widely depending on several factors such as family background, degrees of separation to the person involved, severity of incident, age of people involved, spiritual or religious backgrounds, and many many more factors. Sometimes people scream, cry, yell the place down, start throwing things, collapse etc.. and others go quiet, smile, reflect on the person or family involved, hug each other or start making phone calls.