Normal Accidents

Stephen was still Stephen. He was not about to get religious now, just because he was dying. The more he lost, the stronger he seemed to those who knew him well. He subscribed to what has been called the theory of normal accidents. On every construction job, there is a chance that one ridiculously small mistake -- one number dropped from the blueprints, one bolt dropped from a beam -- will start a crazy chain of events and bring down the whole house. That is what had happened somewhere inside his body. The same thing happened to about 5,000 Americans a year. His illness was a normal accident, and he refused to mythologize it.

Jonathan Weiner, His Brother's Keeper