"Some say life will beat you down, break your heart, steal your crown."
Learning to Fly - Tom Petty
The older I get, the more philosophical I become about life. That's pretty easy to understand, I suppose. With each passing year, we become a little more gray around the edges, get a step or two slower and aches and pains become increasingly prevalent, all serving as constant reminders of our own mortality. And by the looks of my monthly insurance premiums, my healthcare provider is in complete agreement.
Many of us, as we age, have read too many of our contemporaries' obituaries, and just about all of us probably have a handful of deceased friends and acquaintances who live on in perpetuity in our social media contacts feeds. Throw in a global pandemic that has revealed every crack in our culture and our psyche and it is hard not to step back and take stock of what really is important in life and what is not.
In fact, stopping to smell the proverbial roses is a journey I have been on long before any of us ever had heard of Coronavirus.
I try to find joy in the simple things, like time with family and friends, flowers in the yard, the sound of rain and the changing colors in fall. Their supply is temporary and finite.
Our supply of friends, too, has its limits.
In the last four years, a good friend from high school as well as a former college roommate both have died. Each has helped remind me - long before Covid - that we can take nothing for granted.
I had a small but close group of great friends in college. In the years following, we all went our separate ways. Marriage, kids and jobs took each of us off on a different tangent. That all changed in 2014 when our group of five suddenly became 20 percent smaller.
We talk about everything - our families, current events, sports and our common love for Kentucky bourbon.
The death of a close friend was a jolt. There was, however, something positive that came from this tragedy. Although we all still have our own lives - all in different states - we have become much closer and appreciate each other's friendship more as we close in on 60 than we did at 20. We chat via text almost every day. We talk about everything - our families, current events, sports and our common love for Kentucky bourbon.
Besides family, their relationship
In more than 30 years as a journalist, I've met a lot of people, many of whom have faced personal tragedies of unfathomable magnitude. It is impossible not to be moved by the story of 7-year-old Griffin Engle who died of cancer in 2014 and how his parents, Erin and Adam have turned their loss into a mission to help others.
Then there is the story of Matt Henkel, who is battling terminal brain cancer and has the courage to publicly share his journey and how is making the best of his time with his family.
The challenges we all face have been placed under a microscope during Covid. Everyone I know is some combination of scared, frustrated, pissed and depressed. Many lives have been turned upside down due to health concerns from the virus, job loss (their own or that of a spouse or partner) and economic uncertainty, educational concerns, separation anxiety and more.
Like everything in life, the challenges brought on by Covid are only temporary, though it does not always feel that way. Rest assured that soon enough, Covid will be gone, but so will the things we hold most dear in life, so spend your time on those instead.
Life will beat you down only as much as you allow it.
