Wow, that is a morbid way to begin a post. Most people see me as a positive thinker and someone who can see the opportunity in every challenge. But I am also a realist. I was asked the other day how it is I seem to keep my cool and remain calm and somewhat balanced despite the stresses and responsibilities in my life. I had a simple answer. I said, “In the end, I am going to die and my bosses will be rich…and there is not much I can do about it.” I did not mean this as a cynical comment. I meant it as healthy perspective. I will work hard to bring peace and prosperity to my family, my co-workers and my business associates. But sooner or later I will die. My hard work will make a lot of the people I serve very wealthy. That is just the reality of the situation. So there is no reason for me to worry. I don’t have time to waste on worry. I don’t have energy to waste on worry. I need that energy for work projects, for personal projects, for family time and for myself.
I have always has an interesting perspective on death anyway. My mother is a survivor of the German Holocaust. Her Grandmother died in Theresienstadt. Her uncle and his family were murdered in Auschwitz.
My father was a Lutheran minister. When I was a little kid, he oftten took me along on trips to vist the sick and dying in hospitals and nursing homes. It seems like about once a week I answered the phone when a local funeral director was calling to ask my dad to do a memorial service for someone.
I lived in a dangerous time in New York City and knew enough people who died from suicide, accident, AIDS and murder. So I have gotten used to the presence of death.
I have also had a lot of close brushes with death myself. There were a few automobile incidents that were pretty gruesome and hair raising. There was the time a gun was pointed at me in the street. And then there was the time my heart stopped during a surgery and the surgery team thought they had lost me for good.
I am still here. But I clearly understand that life is a temporary condition. I know I have to work hard and put in many hours to keep the doors open for prosperity to enter. But I also know I need to do many other valuable activities every day. Sure some days I forget to live as much as I could. Some days I am too tired to live as I’d like.
But what about your death? Have you had a close call or two? Have you had people very close to you pass way before their time? What are you doing about it?
