But for the Grace of God

For the longest time, I never understood it when people said, "there but for the grace of God go we" or any of its variants.  I didn't understand what it meant; I didn't even really understand what people were saying.  One day, I sat down and put my mind to this saying so I could finally understand it.

The first step, of course, was looking it up online.  I check the Wikipedia page and see, " 'There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.' The words were uttered by Bradford while imprisoned in the Tower of London, when he saw a criminal on his way to execution."  Somehow, this didn't solve it, so I kept on pondering.

The first breakthrough came when I realized what the commas were doing.  They made a parenthetical phrase.  To remove it, we get the equivalent of, "There goes me," an odd thing to say when looking at somebody who isn't you.  But at least it makes sense.  Sometimes you see somebody who is going through something that you have gone through.  You feel a connection with that person.  They remind you of yourself.  When you look at them, you feel like you are looking at yourself.

So let's put the parenthetical phrase back in. "There goes me, but for the grace of God."  I am that person, except for God's gift. In other words, I would be going through what that person is going through if it was not for some minute difference.

I was pretty happy when I finally figured it out.  I hate it when I hear an expression and I know how to use it, but I have no idea what it really means, so there's one less such phrase.

But I also found this discovery surprising.  This expression describes a thought that has been wrapping around my mind lately.  How many times have we almost been in a car crash, almost fallen from a tall place, almost had something poke your eye out?  How many times have you almost died or been permanently disabled?  Even the most cautious person has a handful of them.

The idea that any of us live long enough to do much of anything is pretty astounding.  That doesn't make it any less tragic when somebody does go through a significant negative life event, but allow it to let you reflect that there, but for the grace of God, go you.