An Almost Fatal Miracle
Roger Daniel Rizzo
I am amazed at Roger Daniel Rizzo's courage. He appeared to have
a 'charmed life' - lived in excess and delighted in it - believed he
could do no wrong and lived his life on the edge, until that fatal day
- when he was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident that, by all
rights, should have killed him. Rizzo suffered greatly both
physically and emotionally and had to re-learn all that he had once
took for granted - and this made me wonder how on earth someone comes
out at the other end of such an event. It is so boggling to me
that I have a difficult time even imagining it.
In his memoir "An Almost Fatal Miracle", author Roger Daniel Rizzo
details his life before the accident, describing himself as a go-getter
who had a need to always do better, to be the best at everything he did
and to continuously strive for something more. Even his
description of his extensive travels felt fevererish and exhausting -
this is clearly a man chased by some sort of personal demons.
The tone of the book certainly takes a different turn as he describes,
in the second part, what little he remembers of the months surrounding
the accident - as a matter of fact, there is very little description of
the actual accident - which the author says he has no recollection
of. However, he does tell us about his various hospital and
rehabilitation stays. Although he will never fully recover, he
does make a miraculous recovery and this life-changing event
marks him deeply and sends him on a quest to find out more about why he
is on this earth -how can he help his fellow man and, more importantly,
how can he improve and deepen his relationship with god?
This book must have been a very difficult one to write. Writing
about one's own mortality and, by association god and religion, must
have been deeply personal and it had to have taken a lot of
courage for Rizzo to share all of this raw emotion with his
readers. For this, I commend him - I do not know if I would have
found the same strength.
Any book that talks about religion is highly subjective and Mr. Rizzo's
book is no exception. His central message, as he details to us
his revelations about his god and his religion, is that all human
beings need to live in the now but never forgetting to help our fellow
man - to be there for each other- and there is certainly nothing wrong
with this universal message. I must admit to feeling as though I
was being preached to at times and this did take away from the core of
the book. However, it is obvious that the author sincerely believes
that his life has improved immensely and that his accident turned out
to be the biggest blessing he could have received.
As the twelve step programs always suggests - take what you need and
leave the rest - and this is my suggestion when reading this book.