My Near Death Experience

Bell County has been severely hit with a rash of fatal and near fatal car accidents, along with other forms of misfortune. I think it’s safe to say that there are a lot of people who have been touched by tragedy recently. My wife and I were almost the victims of another tragedy.
Not that our narrow escape from death is any more noteworthy than the other tragedies that have happened or even other stories of escape. Our event happened because a driver did not yield to a stop sign and almost directly hit our passenger side at a high rate of speed. Had it not been for my quick reaction with the brakes, I assure you that she would no longer be with us and that I may or may not have survived.
We were extremely lucky that day, whereas others may not have been as lucky. My wife and I discussed what happened and we both were in amazement at how fragile life is and how instantly one can just be plucked from this earth. Before the incident, we were talking about buying a house and our finances; we were planning out our life for the next year never realizing these are days that are not guaranteed.
But that day, those really important matters (buying a house, paying our bills) didn’t matter to us. We were thankful just to be alive and to have another day to look forward to.
And that’s the reason why I’m writing this column. I know I am victim to tunnel vision at times. I think we all are. We often forget our mortality until we are faced with a tragedy that reminds us that we are here for a short period of time. We forget to make the most out of every day because we get caught up in the complacency of existence. We do not live to our fullest potential because we love the familiar and never venture out to taste the sweet nectar of life.
How often do we say to ourselves that we need to get out and "do things" more often? How often do we go out and do the things that would bring us the most joy? How often do we accomplish all those things that we want to do before we die?
I tell you we don’t because, more often than not, we put those things on the back burner. We think we will have more time "later" but later is not a guarantee. We know we have things to do later, but we don’t know when, or if, that later comes.
If you’ve ever seen the movie, "The Bucket List", then the idea behind this column is familiar. In the movie, two individuals (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) are diagnosed with terminal cancer and begin to do all the things they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket" (hence the name of the movie). The difference between The Bucket List and what happened to my wife and I is that Freeman and Nicholson had a time frame of when they would die; my wife and I did not. We could have died right there and never had another day to make the most of.
The point is that we never really know when we will be taken away, and we often forget that fact. How often do we need reminders that act as the catalyst we need to live our life for today and not for tomorrow? There are only so many guaranteed tomorrows and unfortunately many people in Bell County are aware of that today. My prayers are with those who have felt tragedy either directly or indirectly.