"Fire Victim Rages at Life's Caprice"

A story in the Sunday Los Angeles Times began in this fashion: "Michelle Spence, burned and debilitated in a Rhode Island nightclub fire that killed 100 people, finally felt good enough to see the rock band Poison recently."

The article goes on to say that Ms. Spence's 10 year-old daughter was hysterical and fearful that her mother would end up in another harrowing disaster. Her mother's wounds were sustained at a Great White concert (in case that wasn't clear from the lead-in), after all.

I don't want to sound heartless, but the idea that the mark of her recovery came in the form of her desire to go see another has-been hair band strikes me as both ironic and sad. It gives one cause to experience less grief on behalf of the 100 who died, seeing as how this is what they would have had to look forward to. I have been embarrassed by many things. I only hope that the list won't one day include the circumstances of my death.