An Inchworm Takes Wing

In the tranquil solitude of a darkened Room 12 in the ICU on the sixth floor of Memorial Hospitals Wing C a mortal existence is drawing to an end. His head and torso swathed in bandages his arms and legs awkwardly positioned in hard casts and layers of heavy gauze hes surrounded by loved ones yet unable to communicate isolated within his own thoughts and memories. He does not believe himself to be an extraordinary man simply an ordinary one a man whos made choices both good and bad. A man who was sometimes selfish sometimes misguided sometimes kind and wise. A man who fought in a war in which he lost a part of his soul who then became a teacher and worked hard to repair the damage. When faced with the end how does one reconcile the pieces of an ordinary life? Does a man have the right to wish for wings to carry him to a summit he believes he doesnt deserve to reach?