Reminder: live and let live
A couple days ago Kellianne and I were taking a taxi to meet some friends on the hill, and our driver got a phone call. He quickly informed the caller that he was at work and would have to call her later. He hung up and said, “My daughter. She says, ‘You must come home right now!’” We laughed, then he added, “She’s beautiful. And I have two young sons as well. Sorry, forgive my saying, but 10 days ago, my wife and I, we separated.” Kellianne and I looked at each other sadly, and gave him our best comforting words despite the seeming infinite abyss that stretched between us and the cabbie. A few minutes of silence later, he added, “She said, I am just not the same person.” We sat in traffic up Pike St for a few more blocks, and saw him discretely wipe away a tear at one stop light.
A friend who I know mostly through the Internet, and SXSW, Matt Haughey, has recently discovered that he has a sizable brain tumor. I’ve probably only met or conversed with him a couple times, but he’s widely acknowledged to be a terrific guy, and I wish the best of recoveries for him. I can’t help but put myself in his shoes… to imagine receiving such a startling and life-changing piece of news out of nowhere. These kinds of things happen to all of us, and if it hasn’t happened yet, at some point the frailty and vulnerability of life will make itself known to each of us in its own way.
Coming home from the same night as the taxi top the hill, we came back down the hill and saw Belltown bumping with its usually crowd of drunken, freezing, high-heeled, loud, folk. We scoffed a bit at first, and then one of us said, “They’re just living their life, like we’re living our lives.”
We’re all the same, really. Just living our lives. Continue on.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:51 am
‘Tis true.
When you think of it: what else is there really to do? You either live life (however you want, whatever you consider to be “living”), or you don’t. And who am I to say you’re foolish for choosing to live it how you want? Who are you to say I’m not?
Live and let live, beautiful – yet often forgotten – advice.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Buster,
Thank you! I am comforted when is see a person taking a kind approach to others. That’s you!
Kris
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