Do a quick Google search with the terms "weak grip" and you will only get a measly 28,200 results. According to the latest available statistics from CHAPL (Center for Health And the Prolonging of Life) more than four thousand people have died of weak grips since 2007. That equates to only four results per death. To put this into perspective, a search for "shark attack" nets 1,700,000 results, even as the ISAF (International Shark Attack File) has recorded little more than 1,000 attacks since 1990 in the entire world of which only a fraction resulted in fatalities!
Some more perspective: the latest public health scare, Swine Flu, yields an astronomical 282,000,000 results. And all this outcry while the disease has just recently taken it's 100th victim. That means, for every dead Swine Flu victim, there are nearly three million internet entries mourning their deaths.
Just the other day Linell Fontaine, mother of four, wife of one, and school administrator of 283, lost her grip on an Elm tree branch after careening off the side of Interstate 74 in her 1994 sky blue Jeep Cherokee (Winstonian Times, 4/27/09). Trained EMTs, upon arriving seconds too late, determined that it was indeed Smith's grip and not the tree branch that was too weak. Her death, and the grieving of her elementary school kids, her sons James and Steven, daughters Amy and Christine, and husband Rick, could have easily been avoided if there were greater awareness of the importance of a strong grip and more research grants given to researchers in this struggling field. Her death might have passed on quietly and with little upheaval on the blogs and tweets, but the real-life sorrow that resulted from her unfortunately weak grip continues to reap untold anguish on the town of Winston, Illinois.
Not only do weak grips contribute to a sizable, yet underrepresented, economic loss in the form of lost consumers and producers, but the emotional impact of a grip gone bad is often twofold in nature. I have only mentioned cases in which there are single victims, but the truth is most deaths result from two weak grips. I speak, of course, of the sad but common occurences of hangers-on.
No doubt you have seen many action movies in which the hero reaches out at the last moment to grab the flailing hand of a spouse or child as they fall over cliffs or out of helicopters. These scenes do not represent these situations faithfully. In most real-world examples of dangling victims the untrained hangers-on watch helplessly as their brothers, wives, children and life-long companions' fingers slowly slip from their loosening grasps. Make no mistake: no amount of desperation, no matter how deep, no amount of guttural desire, no matter how soul-wrenching, no amount of sweat or tears, no matter how heart-felt, can reliably save a loved one who has fallen from such heights.
I ask that you donate as much as you can, even if only a few dollars, to the cause. Already top scientists have been able to develop new grip techniques using money from people like you. The Swedish Swan Grip, currently being developed in Stockholm, already shows incredible promise in lab experiments. But we can't stop yet, not when the finish line is finally in sight.
Contribute today, save a life tomorrow.
Please visit Get a Grip for further details and incredible tales of survival.
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The things I think of while taking showers... It occurred to me that people have very weak grips and, given the friend-over-a-cliff situation, would likely fail miserably. But then I realized that maybe it's just a matter of technique - maybe there's a way of holding hands that can't fail. I'm the boy who's lost his grip, if you couldn't tell. Can't wait to get out of here for a few months.
Brunch: Fried egg and cheese sandwich with potatoes on the side.
Dinner: Hamburger, ice cream sundae
1 comment:
Brilliant!
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