There are so many things that go on in each of our daily lives that we often need a quick, unexpected shot to bring us back to reality. You know the drill – you’re at the office and there are a million deadlines or quotas that you have to meet. On top of that you have your family life always a phone call away (and usually this phone call is placed at a time that we may consider inopportune), you have your social life that is always on your mind, and you have the stresses of the day constantly bearing down on you.
The recent passings of Chris Benoit, Woman, Sherri Martel… it makes you stop and think about this thing called life. In the grand scheme of it all, God puts us here for a few nanoseconds. That’s it. No more, no less. We’re each given our snapshot in time and, oddly enough, what we do with that snapshot determines the future of our world’s very existence.
Pretty amazing, huh?
Many of you who are reading this are intimately aware of how short and sudden life can be. Perhaps you are dealing with a terminally ill loved one like I am or perhaps you recently experienced a death in your family as some of my closest associates did last week – there’s no getting around it, death is everywhere and it’s certain. Many younger wrestling fans are just learning this with the untimely passing of Chris Benoit and his family. The truth is, folks, that these professional wrestlers may be larger-than-life superheroes on our television and computer screens, but in reality, they are just human beings.
They have the same pressures on them that we have on us. Sure, some of them are filthy rich and have an easier time with their day-to-day lives. Others are in tremendous shape and never have to worry about self-consciousness. Some are masters of the sport and will always have an extended family to care for and to care about them regardless of their home life. But these men and women are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. When they get a call from their mother or father, they get the same feeling that you or I get. When their kid looks up at them and says “I love you Mommy” or “I love you Daddy,” the simplicity of happiness brings them to tears, too.
I do not know what the cause was of the tragedy that befell the Benoit family. As of this writing, most believe that it was a double murder-suicide with Chris Benoit killing his wife and child before killing himself. Others say that it was a murder where all of the family members were killed. Hey – some fans just want to believe that it was a carbon monoxide leak and that no ultimately evil intention played into this disaster. I’ll never know what really happened and the truth is – neither will anyone reading this column.
What I do know is that life is too short for all of us to be wrapped up in things that don’t matter in the long-run. What matters is your family, your love of your neighbor, your respect for your fellow man – that’s the root of humanity. It’s an overused phrase at this point in history, but it’s high time that we all just got along with each other. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, neighbors, classmates…people in this Country…people in this world.
Let’s enjoy the time that we have here by loving what God has given us, because all He has given us is just a spec of dust on the unlimited masterpiece that is Life. Cherish it.
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