Life Is Too Precious To Waste

This week a woman drove her car on I-95. Her rear tire blew out and caused her to lose control of the car causing it to flip over twice. Her husband, two daughters, ages 25 and 19, and her eldest daughter's boyfriend were all ejected from the car as it rolled over. All four died, three at the scene of the crash and the youngest daughter yesterday while in the hospital. Mom survived the crash. Why? No, it was not God punishing her or anything so existential or philosophical. It was because, for whatever reason, she was the only one wearing a seat belt. Mom not only survived, but the only reason she went to the hospital was to get sedated enough to deal with the tragedy. She spent the night in a motel.

So why do I write about this? First because I think it to be absolute proof that seat belts save lives and failure to use seat belts gets people killed. A simple lesson with which we are all familiar, at least intellectually. To those of you that offer up every excuse known to man, fires, canals, etc., I say you are morons and idiots and good luck with that; you will be eliminated from the gene pool soon enough if you drive long enough.

The second thing I am reminded of is that life is too precious to waste. I want you to stop reading for a moment and count to three. Go ahead, just do it....

Okay, back with me? Those three seconds are seconds that are gone. You cannot get them back. There is no refund or exchange on time. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. You cannot buy minutes in life, unlike cell phones. The lesson, or as I love to say, the take-home point, is don't waste time, It is far too precious and once gone, it is just that, gone. It is therefore a finite resource, too precious to waste.

I have tried to cheat death, and thus the finite limit of time, just a bit by trying to be memorable. I actually believe in the concept that we live on in the memories of others; some good memories and some bad memories. I would like to think that most are good memories, but I am too much a realist not to acknowledge that there are just some people that I pissed off, some intentionally, in fact. However, I still live on in their memories, be they good or bad. In the meantime, I am still alive and will still keep trying to impact people and become part of their memories, for one day I shall leave this mortal coil and no longer have that opportunity.

Life, at least on an individual basis, is a non-renewable resource. We will all run out of it one day. It will end. We will die. I m reminded of a young man that asked, to no one in particular, upon reading of man that was 100 years old, "Who wants to live to be a hundred?" I did not know the kid, but I looked at him and said, "A guy who's 99." I am not sure if he got my point. There is one thing that God has an absolutely perfect record on; all things die. So, treat life like what it is, a limited time offer and make the best possible use of it. Life is far too precious to be wasted. Now, go get on with yours...