I actually experienced a physical reaction to the news of Phil Hughes’ death. When told, I felt a tingle in my skin from the small of my back up my spine to my neck, followed by the hairs on my arms standing on end. I was truly shocked, with my heart thumping in my chest. How could a man so young, so healthy, so talented, living the life that so many Australians would love, be so suddenly gone?
How could all that protection not have kept him safe? How could all the benefits of modern medicine not keep him alive? How? How? How? We often ask how, or why. We seek explanation, we seek knowledge. To understand can be to deal with the situation. I think though that the more pertinent word can be ‘what’.
What does this mean?