There are two seminal events in my life.
The first? When my father and fellow Perspectives author let fly mid-way through my senior year in high school and threatened to throw me out of my house on my 18th birthday if I didn’t shape up. He meant it. And I did shape up. But that’s a Perspective for another day.
The 2nd and more important was a week in August 2000 that began like any other and ended with the sudden death of my wife’s favorite aunt, Charlotte.
Char was a vibrant, fierce and hard-working woman, mother and wife, a linchpin in a family with eight brothers and sisters. We spent time with her and her husband regularly and were watching their two young daughters grow up.
Char went to the emergency room on a Sunday evening, not feeling well. A day later she was in the critical care unit, battling toxic shock syndrome. She fought for four days with all the resources and expertise the hospital could muster. And then Friday evening, she slipped away as we gathered around her bed, her youngest daughter saying “goodbye, Mommy,” while the monitor wound down.
I still remember weeping uncontrollably in the hallway afterward. For me, that event instilled an overwhelming desire to do as much as possible in this life.
More than 25 years later, I still have an inability to relax, often struggling with time spent that isn’t, ummm, “productive.” I push my family to travel, to stay active mentally and physically, and to suck the juice out of this orange we call life with all the energy and focus we can muster.
As the clock ticks, the cliches penetrate more deeply. Life IS short. We CAN always earn more money. However, we CANNOT earn more time, and we must SPEND it accordingly.
I’m Wester Wuori, I’ve got things to do and, statistically speaking, about 25 years left to do them, and that’s my Perspective.
