A recent post at The Main Point, has got me thinking about quality of life.

In my Gerontology class last year, one student said that if he got so old they took away he’s driver’s license, he’s just kill himself, because he couldn’t take that big a limitation. My first thought was to wonder how someone in Gerontology could even think that such a small limitation as loss of driving privledges would be worth dying for.

My second (less charitable) thought, was that: the shape he was in, he was looking at Type II Diabetes and a bunch of other health problems, onsetting at a young age, so his life expectancy might not be very long at all, especially if he thought that losing his driver’s license was a major limitation.

Remembering that incident reminded me that what seems, from the perspective of a young and healthy youth, an unbearable burden, might not seem like that big a deal when you live it on a daily basis.

This is not to say that I believe that disease and illness are a blessing, or a message from God for the individual, either positive or negative. If anything, they are a spur from God to work to advance or medical research to treat debilitating illnesses and conditions so that everyone can live a healthy life.

My initial grounds for considering health, wellness and well-being stem from knowing my grandmother, and what a remarkable woman she is. She has had rhumatoid arthritis since she was in her 30s, yet at the age of 87 still keeps her own house. She’s had two knee replacement surgeries, yet still needs to use a cane when she leaves the house. She hasn’t driven for years, and has great difficulty getting up and down stairs, and up from chairs.

Desite all this, she’s one of the most positive people I know. She may worry, and she may complain a little about aches and pains, or her allergies, but those things don’t dominate her life.

What came to my mind from all of this musing upon death, health, and life, is a reminder that we are not defined by our limitations, but are defined by what what we achieve and we do.