Dear Reader, I crashed tonight and am just waking up. Work today was trying following a three-day weekend and a couple of unfortunate tragedies that happened yesterday. Our office spent the day fighting many fires. On days like these, I’m reminded that I’m not getting any younger. I just finished a three-day weekend, and I still felt like I’d gone ten rounds in a boxing match. Kudos to my wife for taking care of our son this evening without me. She usually puts him to sleep, but I try to spend at least two hours each night playing with him after I get home. Unfortunately, tonight I crashed and didn’t spend much time with him. I will tomorrow.
Tonight, after I awoke, I thought about people who seem to have everything who suddenly become unfortunate victims of tragedy. No, I am not really being fatalistic. I’m recalling two unfortunate events that recently transpired–the one year anniversary of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia and Africa and the funeral of the son of Indianapolis Colts’ Coach Tony Dungy. I know you know about the Tsunami; if you live in the U.S., you probably have heard the story of how Coach Dungy’s teenage son very likely took his own life, an unexpected, terrible tragedy for a family to bear.
December 26, 2004, the day of the Tsunami, seems so long ago, yet I know it is still fresh in many people’s minds. I’m disappointed by sparse American media coverage of the first anniversary of this tragedy, just as I was with coverage of the tragic earthquake in Pakistan. Events of this magnitude impact so many people, especially those who are left behind. I think they deserve more than a one-minute headline. I thought about the families of Tsunami victims who traveled to the sites where they lost their loved ones one year ago. At the same time, I remembered the Dungy family, who buried their son. Just a few weeks ago, the Dungys were on top of the world. Their father’s team, the Colts, was on the verge of a perfect football season. Now, the family must grapple with the loss of a loved one. Neither the Tsunami nor the death of James Dungy were very expected. It reminds me of how life can change in an instant. Sometimes life-changing events are positive ones, but sometimes the event could be tragic. Times like these remind me to live life to the fullest, because I’ll never know what will happen tomorrow.
