People are like flowers and a vase. Maybe you found a vase at the Goodwill store or a yard sale. It’s a very nice looking vase and you think of all the wonderful things you could do with that vase, putting flowers in it, putting it on display and making it look pretty. We imagine how beautiful it will look.
So you buy the vase and take it home. But then you discover the vase has been broken and was glued back together. It might have been broken into a few pieces or lots of pieces. Maybe even a little paint was added to cover up the cracks. As carefully as it was put back together the pieces just don’t fit quite right. It has many cracks but you put some beautiful flowers in it. When you add water you discover that the glue doesn’t hold very well and it leaks. Sometimes the water seeps out just a little bit and other times the water leaks out quickly.
The vase normally would to do a great job of holding the flowers and water and look beautiful. But as the water leaks out emptying the vase, the flowers will slowly die. You can keep just adding water but then it just makes a big mess. The water leaking out will ruin other things and cause a mess. We lose hope because of what we imagined it would look like does not come true.
You could buy fake flowers and put them in the vase. They might look pretty but deep inside you know that they are not real. They are just that, fake flowers. Even though the vase might look pretty, it’s broken and can never be like new again or be fixed correctly.
Some people would take the vase and throw it away because it’s not any good anymore. Other people would take the vase and use it for something else and yet some other people would love the vase and be happy with it. Like the old saying one person‘s garbage is another person‘s treasure. Does the vase have a value? Does the vase have any useful purpose anymore? Maybe the vase cannot be used as it was intended but it can be used for something else? Maybe it isn’t good for anything.
Many people have been broken and the pieces have been glued back together. There likely has even been some paint added to the outside to make them look better. Lots of medical people, friends and family may have tried to glue them back together. The appearance may look wonderful on the outside but there are lots of cracks, many leaks in them, the glue didn’t always work. They will never be like they used to be. They’ve leaked a lot of water the past. And just like the flowers without water, you slowly die. Plastic flowers are fake and they cannot put on a fake smile or pretend they are ok anymore. Weather physical and/or mental cracks in the vase, lots of us have been broken. Maybe if you’re really lucky you come across someone who can put the pieces back together in a magical way. Maybe it will look fabulous, work perfectly and hold water again. Some who are fortunate are put back together and able to hold water. Many others will leak. Some are deemed no good and discarded. But the vase will forever be changed from what it once was. We can only do so much to hold the water. Fate, family, friends, doctors and society decide the rest.
Dan's fight with Hereditary Pancreatitis 