If you are ever having a bad day, I am sorry for your troubles.
Sometimes life is pleasant, cheery, amazing and wonderful. Other times it can be downright hard, hurtful, devastating.
And then there are those days that seem like they are right out of a Kafka novel, or something. Weird.
Take the story of this guy, Donald E. Miller, Jr.
It happened here in Ohio. In 1986.
Yes, Ohioan Donald E. Miller Jr. — people probably called him Donny — was deeply in debt and couldn’t pay child support for his two daughters.
So what did old Donny do? He skipped town and headed southeast to find work. I’m not sure where he went, but he got the heck out of Dodge — aka Ohio — and his responsibilities.
Well. Things didn’t get any easier for the family he left behind. And as such, eight years later, his ex-wife Robin Miller, who owed thousands of dollars, petitioned a probate court to declare the long-lost Donald deceased. The court agreed. That was 2004.
Fast forward another nine years. In 2013, Delinquent-Donny returned to Ohio.
He needed a new driver’s license and the reactivation of his social security number.
So Donny petitioned a judge to have the declaration of death overturned. However, because Ohio law stated that a declaration of death can’t be reversed more than three years after it’s made, the judge declined. “I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” Judge Allan Davis told Donald.
It’s a bizarre case, but not unheard of. About 40 people are mistakenly declared dead in the US each year.
I’m not sure what ever happened to Donald E. Miller, Jr. DOA.
I suppose he had to leave the state and try to be born again elsewhere. Or maybe have his name changed or something. I mean, how does one go on living if they’ve been declared dead?
As goofy as it may sound, this whole story made me see the parallels in other people’s lives.
So many times, people undergo hard things while they are living. In all shapes and sizes. It could be something physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. But when this happens, we feel a great loss in these occurrences. And part of us dies. Or it feels like part of us dies.
Most of the time, we grieve whatever “it” is. And then we go on living.
But for some people, they see themselves as being declared dead, and they quit.
I hope it never happens to any of us.
I hope we all can find a way through whatever “hard” thing might come our way.
Some of us already have gotten past bad things.
Some of us know a tragic loss.
But whatever the case may be, life, at its core, is what we are supposed to be doing here.
Living. Growing. Learning. Being.
May we all find our way to this. This day, and always.
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“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost
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“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
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“The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
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Donny died. Sort of.
