*Quick Summary: The author reflects on the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash, and how moments like that help induce clarity. He also questions why people don’t always maintain that clarity.*
If there’s been a day since October 24th, 2004 that I haven’t thought about this plane crash, I sure don’t know it. Once something like that happens in your life, you can never quite go back to who you were before. It’s funny, as people certainly try to. I’ve seen a lot of folks act as if it never happened. Good people, caring people, people that knew those on the plane very well. A coping mechanism to be sure, but it makes me wonder what they truly feel inside.
When something like that happens, the world makes less sense than at any other time in your life. Conversely, it can make more sense. It seems as if the clutter of daily life disappears and you are forced to focus on what is truly important in life. It isn’t about work, what kind of car you drive, or whether you’re having a bad hair day. Life becomes important, and for some, strangely positive in a time that could be taken very negatively. What you do, what you say, the quality of time you spend with others, and your attitude towards those in your life all take center stage. The frustrating thing to me now, over three years later, is why those positive things tend to fade away for some people as time goes on, only to resurface the next time something goes bad in their life.
I compare it to an addict who prays to God to let them live through their excesses and promising to never do it again, only to see them do the exact same thing the very next day. It makes you wonder what it takes to get through to some people. To see people who I know loved those people on the plane go back to letting trivial things in life dominate their time is so frustrating, yet I feel myself do it almost daily as well. I feel I have kept a pretty good perspective on life since then. I have tried to be more patient. I have tried to be a better person. I have tried to focus more on people in my life and less on things. I have tried to take time to smell roses, see rainbows, play with puppies, and watch sunsets. But inevitably, a beautiful sunset will pass and although I looked up, I didn’t stop what I was doing long enough to commune with God and thank Him for it. Is that a sin? Probably not, but taking life’s special treats for granted robs you of more than you can imagine.
So many people these days are focused on work, issues with their daily lives, or on making other people’s problems their own. Almost every one of them has had a moment similar to what I described above. A moment in time where the fog of daily life is washed clean and you are shaken to the core of your being. A point where such great clarity exists because every trivial thing in your life is finally shown for what it is – trivial. What happens to us to lose sight of that? Why do we not take these hard lessons with us? Some do, and to those folks God grants something extra. He gives them a little peace, and with that peace also comes happiness, the thing we all strive for more than anything else in life.
Peace and happiness are magical things we rob ourselves of daily. We are so content to burden ourselves with things simply because we encounter them. That burden is called stress. Why we allow stress to enter our mind and body is a great thing to ponder, but why we create stress for ourselves is an even bigger question. I see people do it daily. Take an ordinary situation and add their own spin until it blows up and becomes a huge issue. Why? Is it because they’ve never had a moment that has shaken them to their core, or because they had that moment and forgot the lesson they should have learned from it? Either way, the result is the same. Confusion, stress, strife, anger, hatred, and every other negative feeling comes from thinking of the body and mind and forgetting your soul. Your core. The same inner core that is revealed to you, unfortunately, in times of tragedy or death.
Deep down at my core is a good person. I know because I’ve seen him. He’s a pretty good guy. Trouble is, this world works to bring that guy down, and sometimes he lets it. When I think of the plane crash, my mind returns to what is important in life. God the Father. Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit. My soul. My family. My friends. Making the most of what I am given. You know, the important stuff. The question is – why must I be reminded? And most importantly to the reader – Why must you?
