Can You Really Afford to Waste Today? A Moment with Bill Reflection

His pallid skin had all the vibrancy of a department store mannequin. With professional care his eyelids had been sewn shut, never to open and see again. His hands were folded across his stomach, just below the tip of his midnight blue tie.

Gone was the laughter for which he was known. Gone were the witty remarks, the words of comfort, and the prayers he recited daily. In their place was only silence. In his place was only the shell of a sixteen-year old boy struck down much, much too early.

He had gone to the landscaping store to pick up some rocks ordered by his mother. He was doing a last minute favor for her because she had been called to her neighbor’s home to care for a sick friend. Two blocks from his home a dog rushed across the road. Brakes were stomped on and then the laws of physics took over as the rocks in the bed of his pickup truck shifted forward with astonishing speed and power. One such rock crashed through the back window and hit him in the head. He died instantly.

Sixteen years on this planet. A lifetime of dreams ahead of him….gone!

He would come over occasionally when he saw me working in my yard, and I would stop my chores and play catch with him. I had watched him grow from six years of age when they moved on our block to the sixteen which would be his final number in life. He was just a good kid. There was nothing extraordinary about him and yet he was extraordinarily ordinary. He was kind and a delight to be with, and he was dead.

When the service ended the priest nodded to the casket, and six of us rose from our pews and gently, lovingly lifted that casket and began the final procession down the aisle. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and as he was lowered into the ground others were born, and others died, and the randomness and the mystery of this thing called life was omnipresent.

A lesson was learned that day by many who were in attendance.

Can we really afford to waste a single day of this gift we’ve been given?

I have spoken of him often. Three days before his fiftieth birthday we were watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he dropped dead of a heart attack. He would never see his son pitch in college, the culmination of countless hours of playing catch, father and son. He would never see his son graduate from college, the only member of an Iowa farm family to ever attend the halls of higher education.

He would never see another Christmas, watch another sunrise, or whisper the words “I love you” to his son as he lay sleeping.

Forty-nine years, three-hundred and sixty-two days on this planet, and he was gone.

Can we really afford to waste a single day of this gift we’ve been given?

I’m not telling you anything you did not know already. I’m quite certain that most of you have experienced the sadness of a sudden death, a person you knew and/or loved who was snatched away much too soon. I’m sure many of you, if not all, walked away from a similar funeral, and reminded yourself to seize the day and make the most out of the time you have left.

And then you went home and watched “The Voice” followed by a rerun of “I Love Lucy” and promised yourself that tomorrow you would start chasing that dream, that tomorrow you would make your bucket list a little bit shorter.

But will there be a tomorrow?

We reach adulthood and find a job. We make our money and we buy a car, a home, a few possessions of comfort, and before we know it we are trapped. The trap tightens and we need to work more, and the more we work the tighter the trap becomes, and the dreams of our youth fade like some spectral vision on a foggy night.

We put in our forty and retirement comes, a time of rest, a time of relaxation, and a time of adventure we have dreamed about all of our lives….but….the economy takes a downturn, and the money saved does not equal the obligations acquired, and our bodies are tired and more dreams hit the scrapheap as our golden years become faded and dull…..

Or…..

We die and never see the golden years that once held so much promise.

In case you haven’t noticed it, we come into this world with zero promises given. Anyone who invests in the future while mortgaging the present is playing a fool’s game of mammoth proportions.

I have one message for you all and I pray you listen.

Do not waste this gift of life.

A young woman named Marissa shared some news on Facebook a few weeks ago. It was news that had me smiling from ear to ear, and I rejoiced with her over that news. She stated that this summer she was going to go to Europe and experience the trip of a lifetime while she still had time.

Marissa is twenty-two years old.

While she still had time!

Twenty-two years old.

From the mouths of babes!

According to the latest Nielsen ratings, the average American watches five hours of television every single day. The average American also spends an hour each day on the Internet, an hour and seven minutes on a smartphone and two hours, forty-six minutes listening to the radio or some other music device….and my favorite…another thirty-two minutes each day on time-shifted television.

Total it all up and the average American spends almost eleven hours each day being entertained by technology.

46% of this gift of life spent on technological entertainment…….and….it increases as we grow older!

I am at a loss for words.

And before I start seeing fingers pointing in my direction, let me state for the record that I do not have a television, nor do I own a smartphone or an ipod.

Listen, it really is none of my business how you live your lives. If you really live for technology and find great comfort in it, then who am I to suggest you are doing this life thing all wrong? Different strokes for different folks and all that, right?

But…..

For those who feel trapped…for those who lament over a life wasted….it is never too late to begin living.

Grab hold of life and squeeze every ounce out of it that you can. Ride on the back of a dolphin and feel the joy as you skim over the waves. Climb that mountain that has always loomed from a distance. Strap on some wings and soar with the eagles. Rejoice in a sunrise and end your days marveling at the sunset. Experience as much as possible so that when you lay your head down on that pillow tonight, you will know that you were not cheated and you did not shortchange yourself.

And when your time comes, and the final sunset has been viewed, you will be able to look back and shout “HALLELUJAH” for a life well-lived, a life of substance, a life of exquisite adventure and accomplishment.

That is what I wish for you all.

2014 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)