The Fragility of Life
Today was a very surreal day at school. The students put on a series of assemblies to celebrate Black History Month. I have been looking forward to seeing the performances for a while now and considered it my good fortune that I had an opportunity to attend the performance during second period.
About halfway through the assembly, one of the assistant principals came to the front of the auditorium to ask the teacher sponsoring the event to stop the assembly and allow him to announce that they needed to evacuate the auditorium. I heard the words death and dying a couple of times, as I was sitting right behind them.
The students were evacuated due to a “medical emergency”. To make a long and emotional story short, one of our teachers collapsed at the back of the auditorium. Although EMS was called in immediately, they were unable to revive him and he subsequently passed away. It appears to have been a heart attack.
I did not know him well, but I did know his reputation. The kids were fond of him. He had a lot of close friends at the school. In any event, to look over and see one of my peers, someone not much older than me, receiving CPR – it was sobering. As I rush through my days, allowing fatigue to steal time away from my time with my daughter, or my hobbies, or my friends, I have been allowing days to blend into weeks until months have passed in the blink of an eye.
Each day counts. We all know this on an intellectual level, but we are hurried along by the rigors of life. I decided to take the situation and learn from it, reaffirm that I need to slow down and look at the world around me, enjoy my daughter’s childhood, savor the things I learn from others every day.
No comments yet.