HEAVY WEIGHT

The lost ones keepin' me up at night
The world be reminding me it's danger - Kendrick Lamar

It’s almost impossible to imagine how human beings can recover from the trauma of losing loved ones in the most horrific of circumstances. Over the past few weeks, three random events have shocked me with the sheer awfulness of the tragic scenarios faced by the victims, the survivors, and the families who endured them.

One incident close to me involved a Boxing Day house fire in which a police officer attempted to save his wife and two young children, only to lose them all in the blaze. The loss is immeasurable; the waking nightmare of surviving after losing everything closest to you would make each day a form of torture, and carrying on would surely feel unbearable.

Another fire, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on 1 January, saw young partygoers trapped inside a club that quickly became engulfed in flames, leaving 40 dead and over 100 injured. Again, there are almost too many variations of horror here to comprehend. Needless to say, any parent would cling a little tighter to their child after hearing such reports.

The third tragedy involved heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua, who nearly lost his life in a tragic road accident in Lagos, Nigeria, in which two of his closest friends and team members died in grisly fashion. I’m glad I avoided the initial footage of the aftermath which surfaced on the internet. According to those who saw it, it was truly sickening. The survivor’s guilt for Joshua will be immense, especially as he had swapped seats not long before the fatal collision with a stationary truck occurred. On top of that, the driver—also a friend and team member of the boxer—is being charged with reckless driving. The psychological ramifications of this situation are, again, almost too unbelievable to imagine.

While the first two tragedies were marked by anonymity, Joshua’s story reminds us that no one—regardless of fame or fortune—is immune to the fragility and unpredictability of life. Perhaps what makes the Joshua incident a cautionary tale of sorts is that he had only just pocketed his biggest payday over Christmas, fighting YouTuber Jake Paul in Tampa, Florida, and the incident seemed to prove to the rest of us—less financially privileged—just how insignificant such material rewards are when life can be so easily taken from us in the blink of an eye. Not that we need reminding when events such as the Boxing Day house fire and the Crans-Montana bar tragedy are reported in the news, but perhaps some of us lean into the naïve assumption that celebrities are somehow immune to the suffering that affects the rest of us.

One hopes, like the rest of those in the events described who survive beyond those who perish, that some peace can be found in the silence of grief for Joshua.

What else can be done but to submit to the unbearable sadness of it all and accept that the tragic reality of how we measure the value of life lies in its fleeting preciousness.