The graph of life

One day I shall construct a graph of my life – high spots, low spots, bits when it rumbled along in third gear... If I do so it will have to be on an almost hour by hour basis. Life can be jogging along quite happily with nothing special to make it good or bad when along comes a sudden event to shoot it through the roof or down below one’s toes.

Yesterday I watched some Grand Prix qualifying and the Grand National; did a couple of crosswords with Jo; sorted through a bit more jewellery (it’s taking a time because we are photographing and ‘cataloguing’ it all); washed the kitchen floor; listened on the radio to Liverpool FC beating Fulham... All the sorts of things that go to make a fairly reasonable day. If the high point on my graph is a five then the day was probably around a three until I got a migraine in the evening at which stage it went down hill a bit.

This morning looked set to be about the same. There was the prospect of a Grand Prix to look forward to and Jo’s birthday presents to wrap..... Then I opened my e-mails and hey presto, I feel like the day has gone to a minus 10. Why? Because my best friend’s latest medical test results are not good. It’s things like this that put the rest of life into perspective and make one realise how tenuous our happiness or contentment can be. It becomes even more frustrating when it is something like this – something that one cannot affect by one’s own efforts or skills.

Because we are human, normal service will no doubt be resumed as soon as possible and tomorrow will simply be another day but for now it’s fallen off the graph.....