I came across this quote as someone’s sig line:

"In a perfect world, of course, this would have given me superpowers. Unfortunately, all I have is the story, a faint feeling of foolishness, and a knowledge of what, exactly, electricity tastes like." – Miranda

You don’t need any more than that. Any more explanation would have ruined it. It gives you just enough information to construct any one of a number of wild and far-fetched stories – none of which are wilder or more far-fetched than the truth would have to be.

But Dann and I got to talking about our own experiences in getting shocked by electricity, and we remembered a man we knew when we were kids – he had been working on some power lines, and accidentally touched a live wire. The current flowed into one arm, across his chest, and out the other arm. So much electricity went through him that they had to amputate both his arms.

Then we remembered another man each of us had met independently – he had put his hand into a corn husker to remove a blockage, and it got chewed up. When they performed reconstructive surgery, his hand wound up looking something like a pig’s foot, with the remnants of his fingers sewn into two large members opposite his thumb.

What began as a humorous sig line and a sharing of anecdotes quickly led into reflection on the finality of our actions – neither of these men got a second chance. I soberly meditated on just how well-off I am, and how bad things could be – and how bad things might become, with a momentary lapse of judgment or a simply accident.