Not because we should live in constant fear that everything may be our last.
That would make living almost impossible.
Rather, because we can learn to notice what we normally overlook.
The meal in front of us.
The people sitting beside us.
Being able to walk outside.
Having enough money for lunch.
Choosing where to go.
Calling someone whenever we want.
The ability to taste food.
A body that carries us through an ordinary afternoon.
These things do not feel miraculous because we experience them repeatedly.
But repetition does not make them worthless.
Maybe a Meaningful Life Is Built From Small Things
People spend enormous amounts of time preparing for a future they assume will arrive.
When I earn more money.
When I get the promotion.
When the children grow up.
When work becomes less busy.
When I lose weight.
When I retire.
When everything is finally in order.
Then I will enjoy life.
But life does not happen only after the important things are completed.
It happens while they are happening.
A hamburger can be life.
So can breakfast with someone you love.
So can a bad joke.
So can rain on the window.
So can a ten-minute conversation.
So can driving somewhere familiar.
So can music playing in another room.
So can drinking something cold on a hot afternoon.
The great events matter.
But they are rare.
Most of a human life is made from small experiences.
Perhaps Wendrik's story affects people because, near the end of his own life, the thing he wanted was one of those small experiences.
He did not ask the world for immortality.
He did not ask for fame.
He did not ask for something no one could give him.
He wanted to leave the hospital.
He wanted to choose his food.
He wanted a hamburger.
And for a little while, he got to have it.
That does not make his death less tragic.
It does not make cancer fair.
It does not turn an 18-year-old dying into an uplifting story.
But it does remind us of something easy to forget:
A meaningful moment does not have to be enormous.
Sometimes meaning is sitting at a table with food you wanted in front of you.
Sometimes freedom is walking through a door.
Sometimes kindness is simply paying for another person's meal.
And sometimes the things we barely notice today are exactly the things we would desperately miss if they were suddenly taken away.
Wendrik Santos da Silva had far too little time.
But during one of his final days outside the hospital, he chose something he wanted from the world.
A hamburger.
A couple of drinks.
A small piece of ordinary life.
And perhaps that is why his story is still remembered.
Because it makes the ordinary impossible to look at in quite the same way again.
Sources
RedeTV! — March 22, 2019: Contemporary Brazilian reporting identifying Wendrik Santos da Silva, his advanced intestinal cancer, Hospital Municipal São José in Joinville, the March 12 outing, his hamburger and two drinks, his return to hospital with SAMU and his death seven days later.
Metrópoles — March 22, 2019: Reporting that Wendrik was receiving palliative care, had no money for the meal, received help from a receptionist connected with his mother and subsequently returned to hospital after becoming unwell.
aRede — March 22, 2019: Additional contemporary reporting on his cancer diagnosis, hospitalization, pain treatment and the circumstances of the outing.
World Health Organization: Guidance explaining that palliative care focuses on improving quality of life and relieving physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering in people with life-threatening illness.
U.S. National Cancer Institute: Medical information explaining palliative care, quality of life, symptom management and the importance of patients' goals and preferences in serious cancer care.