We are all familiar with how one single event can quickly alter a life. I would suspect most of us have some experience with how one's life can be changed in an instant. I was reminded of this by the comments made last Sunday by a Captain with the Winnebago County sheriff's department regarding a boating collision the prior day that took the lives of two young women on Lake Winnebago. She noted that on a nice summer evening lives were changed in an instant. The lives of the family and friends of those two young women were altered due to the collision of those two boats. Even the driver and passenger in the other boat will have their lives altered by the experience.
What was likely a fun time being enjoyed by the four members of the one boat, and two in the other, at 8:38 pm turned in an instant to one of horror. Collisions are like that. One second everything looks great, and the next it could be total disaster. Today, it seems that a form of the word collide is being used in-lieu of accident. The news articles I read never used the term accident, but reported that two boats collided (or a form of the word). I suppose collide is a more descriptive term for what occurred. The first definition of accident at Merriam Webster is: an unforeseen or unplanned event. This certainly would fit that definition. What is rather significant is that such life altering unexpected events that are, to put it bluntly, bad, occur more often than those that are good. I can list a number of bad events that have likely altered my life but few good events that occurred in an instant to affect my life.
Life changing events usually seem to occur by injury or accident. Diving certainly seems to produce its share of dramatic in-an-instant events. In college I saw first hand the results of diving injuries, and again several years ago with a man who is now the spouse of my niece suffered a serious diving injury. Suicides are another time when lives are changed in an instant. Once it affects your family you find out other families who have been affected, an unknown legion grouped together by a tragic, often unexplained event.
The first major event to likely change my life was one of which I was not aware as I was less than two years old at the time. In early August 1959 I had a brother, aged four at the time who was killed when struck by a car. He was the fifth of ten children, and I the sixth of the ten. Besides the effects on my parents and older siblings, I think there was also an effect on family dynamics. I, with my twin brother, were born in 1957, the next oldest sibling was born over five years earlier. When young we were almost like two families, the older boys, yes the four oldest of the now nine were all boys, and us five younger siblings. As we aged, the brother born in 1952 would become the bridge and do more with the younger siblings. I often wondered what the family dynamic would have been if our brother Leo had lived. Two of the children in the family were not even yet born at the time of his death. While there have been other in-an-instant events in the interim, the most recent was in February with the untimely and unexpected death of our oldest brother.
Unexpected good events seem to occur less often, As I write, I think it is really hard to come up with an event from which a positive outcome arose that turned in an instant. Births of our sons was expected, perhaps both being healthy was great, but would that not be the norm of expectation? While the receipt of a phone number in March 1989 for the woman who would become my wife was not expected, my life did not turn in an instant with that phone number. It is not like I called her when I got home to set up the blind date. I had to be hounded by the person who gave me the number to call her, not to mention a not to successful attempt to do some background investigative work on this woman. Getting a job offer is not unexpected, unless you had not applied for the job. Being baptized occurred in an instant, but it was a choice made by parents. The positive life changing in-an-instant events are likely less realized, and I think many positive outcomes take some work on our part, hence they are not usually in an instant. Working for a positive outcome makes it even more rewarding. Perhaps we simply need to be more aware of the positive aspects of our lives that occur in more simple almost everyday events.
We all know from some personal experience a negative occurrence that in some unknown way altered our lives. I am sure my life would be different if my brother Leo was still alive. The lives of the family and friends of the two sisters killed in the boating accident will now be different. An event like that on Lake Winnebago brings a reminder of the often times intractability of life. Being aware and appreciating what we have and the more common events in life such as, but not limited to, time with family and/or friends, a hike in a woods, watching a sunrise or sunset, giving an unexpected gift, and yes, smelling the roses, can enrich and fulfill our life everyday.
What was likely a fun time being enjoyed by the four members of the one boat, and two in the other, at 8:38 pm turned in an instant to one of horror. Collisions are like that. One second everything looks great, and the next it could be total disaster. Today, it seems that a form of the word collide is being used in-lieu of accident. The news articles I read never used the term accident, but reported that two boats collided (or a form of the word). I suppose collide is a more descriptive term for what occurred. The first definition of accident at Merriam Webster is: an unforeseen or unplanned event. This certainly would fit that definition. What is rather significant is that such life altering unexpected events that are, to put it bluntly, bad, occur more often than those that are good. I can list a number of bad events that have likely altered my life but few good events that occurred in an instant to affect my life.
Life changing events usually seem to occur by injury or accident. Diving certainly seems to produce its share of dramatic in-an-instant events. In college I saw first hand the results of diving injuries, and again several years ago with a man who is now the spouse of my niece suffered a serious diving injury. Suicides are another time when lives are changed in an instant. Once it affects your family you find out other families who have been affected, an unknown legion grouped together by a tragic, often unexplained event.
The first major event to likely change my life was one of which I was not aware as I was less than two years old at the time. In early August 1959 I had a brother, aged four at the time who was killed when struck by a car. He was the fifth of ten children, and I the sixth of the ten. Besides the effects on my parents and older siblings, I think there was also an effect on family dynamics. I, with my twin brother, were born in 1957, the next oldest sibling was born over five years earlier. When young we were almost like two families, the older boys, yes the four oldest of the now nine were all boys, and us five younger siblings. As we aged, the brother born in 1952 would become the bridge and do more with the younger siblings. I often wondered what the family dynamic would have been if our brother Leo had lived. Two of the children in the family were not even yet born at the time of his death. While there have been other in-an-instant events in the interim, the most recent was in February with the untimely and unexpected death of our oldest brother.
Unexpected good events seem to occur less often, As I write, I think it is really hard to come up with an event from which a positive outcome arose that turned in an instant. Births of our sons was expected, perhaps both being healthy was great, but would that not be the norm of expectation? While the receipt of a phone number in March 1989 for the woman who would become my wife was not expected, my life did not turn in an instant with that phone number. It is not like I called her when I got home to set up the blind date. I had to be hounded by the person who gave me the number to call her, not to mention a not to successful attempt to do some background investigative work on this woman. Getting a job offer is not unexpected, unless you had not applied for the job. Being baptized occurred in an instant, but it was a choice made by parents. The positive life changing in-an-instant events are likely less realized, and I think many positive outcomes take some work on our part, hence they are not usually in an instant. Working for a positive outcome makes it even more rewarding. Perhaps we simply need to be more aware of the positive aspects of our lives that occur in more simple almost everyday events.
We all know from some personal experience a negative occurrence that in some unknown way altered our lives. I am sure my life would be different if my brother Leo was still alive. The lives of the family and friends of the two sisters killed in the boating accident will now be different. An event like that on Lake Winnebago brings a reminder of the often times intractability of life. Being aware and appreciating what we have and the more common events in life such as, but not limited to, time with family and/or friends, a hike in a woods, watching a sunrise or sunset, giving an unexpected gift, and yes, smelling the roses, can enrich and fulfill our life everyday.
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