The Value of a Life

I don’t do anniversary dates of tragedies, but it’s impossible not to realize that 17 years ago, we lost my brother, Jeff, and the light of the world severely dimmed.

There’s been a lot of death around us.

The two Americans killed in Minnesota, for nonsense.

Americans who are shot and killed on the streets every day because we can’t have common sense gun laws.

I knew a man who arrived on a construction site last week. He sat down and laced up his boots, and then he collapsed and died of a heart attack.

A school of elementary children were bombed in Iran.

Sad stuff to think about on the saddest day on the calendar, and yet, it made me contemplate the value of a single life.

Alex Pretty and Renee Good have been gone for less than a month, and the millions of us that were shocked and horrified have moved on with our own little lives.

Both those who loved them won’t ever fully get over it. The light of their world has dimmed.

And we don’t talk about death much past the fact that it’s too sad to address, and live a peaceful life.

Every life has value.

People mean something to one another, and the heartache stays.

Just hangs over you like a dark cloud.

I don’t understand how our so-called leaders are so callous, and reckless with our lives.

It’s uncomfortable to consider.

But know that when you pass someone in the street, they’re valued.

I miss my brother, every day, and I think of the deaths that have been in the news (and all around me lately) and I celebrate the value of the lives of the dearly departed because of the heartache they’ve left behind.

We are all riders on this train, and we should be moving in the same direction.

This isn’t a dress rehearsal.

We truly need to care for one another, and I realize that rings hollow as we just started a war…

…but I have to hold onto the faith that there is still hope.

Live your valuable life the best you can.