Sooner or later, it has to happen. But some ways are worse than others, I think. Yes, at some point, we all travel onward to the other side. Whatever that might be. Maybe it is everything. Maybe it is nothing.
But we have to claim our ticket out of here, one way or another. I hope to go peacefully in my sleep. Probably most of us would want it that way.
Yet, this wasn’t the case for Duncan Alexander Burrell Gordon. A guy with four names, but he went by Alex. He worked at the Industrial Recycling and Recovery plant in Greer, South Carolina. His father is a supervisor there, watching the recyclables recycle.
He went missing a couple of months ago, on May 5th. Gone. Into thin air. At work one moment and missing the next.
As it turns out, the guy slipped and fell into a massive plastic shredder, commonly used in recycling processing plants. The coroner’s office said the machine was inspected four times. Finally, they found some remains in the way of blood. The DNA matched Gordon. He was 20 years old.
About 30 tons of plastic had been processed between the time Gordon was noticed missing and when the first investigator arrived to inspect the machine.
There was no comment on the nature of the guy’s death. They would not say if it was being investigated as an accident or a homicide.
Either way, it had to be a horrible way to go.
It sounds like a dangerous job, but it is not listed in the top 25 most dangerous jobs in the United States. Although, at number five is refuse and recyclable material collectors—the people who pick up the stuff. Slips and falls are a relatively common hazard among these folks. But transportation incidents accounted for 67.7% of deaths.
The one that surprised me on the list was fishers and related fishing workers. They came in second on the most dangerous job list. Commercial fishing can be a hazardous thing, apparently. Of course, it is hard physical work. But they also have to deal with extreme weather. Not only that, fishers are out on the water when an accident occurs. Therefore, getting to a hospital or medical professional may not be very easy.
But, the number one most dangerous job belongs to logging workers. The most common accident is being struck by an object.
Apparently, no one is yelling “Timber.”
Like commercial fishing, the location of the work is primarily outdoors and often in remote areas. Again, this makes it hard to get medical
And then, let’s not forget all those chainsaws.
I like a good safe job, like working in a pillow factory, or a marshmallow fluff plant. Or house hermit.
As for the rest?
Euripides once said, “No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.” Not the guy in the shredder, not any of us.
But some years later, Jonathan Swift wished us well, when he said,
“May you live every day of your life.”
And so it goes.
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“Where there is love there is life.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein
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“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
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Look out. It is dangerous out there.
