05.09.07

Pomp and Circumstance

Posted in Life, JD at 3:32 pm by jd

“Porthos dreams of becoming a bear and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he’s just a dog? What a horrible, candle-snuffing word. That’s like saying, ‘He can’t climb that mountain, he’s just a man.’ Or, ‘That’s not a diamond, it’s just a rock.’ Just.”
Finding Neverland

This got me to thinking, how many other “just” situations do people go through everyday without realizing their immense circumstance? It’s an age old debate of “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” Adam Duritz modestly proposed we “pave paradise and put up a parking lot.” So have we been warned that time is something that can never be replenished, our one truly scarce natural resource. Conversely, Van Wilder makes light of the situation when he tells us not to take life too seriously (“You’ll never get out alive.”)

These scenarios raise interesting points, though. You won’t get out alive. Just ask the expectant mother of Chico Corrales’s soon to be born baby. This child will never know a father. Ask the parents of the five boys who passed away as a result of the tragic Bluffton University bus crash. Those ball players were innocently awaiting the beginning of a new baseball season when their lives were taken far too soon. What about all the people who lost their lives in the most recent weather related tragedy? The people of Kansas are going through a smaller scale version of what happened recently in New Orleans.

What is the point of all this? I guess the point is that life is short, too short to be taken for granted; too short to make light of “just situations.” This morning I jumped out of bed for work late, but it was just one day. I then proceeded to breeze through my routine of getting ready for work. I did it by myself, I have that luxury. I have the luxury of a job. I got to see my five month old niece on my lunch break. I drove my car to get to these places, I’m typing this right now, the ability to see, speak, read and write (depending on who you talk to). Pretty soon I’ll leave work and go home to shoot baskets in my driveway before I eat dinner and hang out with my family. At some point I’ll gripe about having to go pick up an old friend from the airport late and all the hectic places I’ll have to run over the next four days.

Look, I realize how lucky I am. I realize that when I’m “just going home” that I have a home. I have a means to get to that home. I have a means to pick up my friend from the airport, and a good enough friend that makes me willing to put in the time. I’m lucky to have family that wants me to visit. They want me to help raise my niece. These are not just situations, these are gold. These are the “small stuff” that really are about as small as the Grand Canyon, which, by the way, wouldn’t be a large enough space to accommodate all of these “small things” that I’m mentioning.

So when I finally hit the pillow tonight, I won’t JUST be dreaming. I won’t JUST be doing anything. I will sleep, eat, drink, play, work, spend time, teach, commiserate, love and be loved exactly as I have been. But from now on, I’m going to realize that the things in my life that I am JUST going through, are things that make my life worth going through. After all, life is “like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us.”

I’ll tell my niece you said hello.

Be Well.

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