None Of Us Are Exempt

None of us are exempt from the things that happen in the human situation.

I lost my father and then I lost my mother, and this has been eight and nine years ago. And then it happens today. Just minutes ago, as I'm writing this-literally less than five minutes ago-I got word about my father-in-law, a man who I viewed as a young man at 72, a man who I looked up to.

My wife called in the middle of the working day, and told me that he had passed on. Now, you can't say it was totally a surprise. He had a heart attack only three or four weeks before.

They had told him that they'd put him on some kind of blood pressure medication which would solve his problems, and the biggest consequence would be he'd have to take that forever and ever, for the rest of the days of his life. He was fit. Something in his ticker must have just said it was his time to go.

I think about the sadness that's throughout the family. And we think about my wife's mother most of all, his companion. You know, she's approximately the same age. She's probably got the next 10-20 years of her life to live without this person, this mate who had been at her side all these years.

Nobody's perfect, but love is deep and profound. And so, I am moved-yes, I am hurting-but I'm moved again to say the thing I say so often: live this moment, love this moment, carpe diem.

It's not about the gluttonous ravishing of life. It's about loving and appreciating those whom you're with.

Is it coincidental? I just wrote an article earlier today, and the title was "Live Now, You Don't Know How Long You Have". And I was never once thinking about my father-in-law, never once thinking that it was imminent to me or anyone close to me.

No, none of us can escape the human condition. And you know, I thought it was bad when I had my own parents pass on... and this is actually as bad or even worse, because now I have my spouse to be concerned about.

And I'm not asking for your sympathy-no, no, no, we're not going there. I'm telling you, and I'm demonstrating to you, that there're real hurts in life. Things do happen, and you've just got to get on with it. There is no other choice.

But the thing is, live in the moment. Do everything you can, everything you can to live! Everything you can to contribute, everything that you can to let those whom you love know that you love them.

Because you may never have another chance.