Life is Fragile...Handle With Care...

We view our lives as fragile, we billions of human beings, each like a knot in a fishing net: autonomous of the other knots, yet indissolubly interconnected with all the others. All moves as one, yet the integrity of the net depends on each individual knot. Woven together we form the net of Humanity.

Lately I've been contemplating how the destructive qualities of disease and death seem to come so easily to us. An automobile accident, a bout with cancer, or a thousand other everyday occurrences remind us of the delicate balance of life. Viewed as bodies moving on this earth we are constantly on the razor's edge: a single slip and we are severed from what we know in this world. I mean, we all could be gone from this world on any given day for any giver reason...and at that point, The knot snaps.

Then I started to wonder. Life is really fragile and short. Everyday we spend our time…it’s just like a journey or a learning experience. But when it’s all done for the day….when you sit down or lie down on your bed (provided you don’t fall asleep straight away) and when you think NOTHING at all - you’ll really feel an emptiness in you. It’s as if whatever happened in the day was written inside a storybook, with you flipping over the pages.

And one day, the book which you’ve been flipping through would surely come to an end.

The time I’ve spent arguing about things that matter to me...cursing the traffic...getting sad over small things...worrying over money or wanting to break away from this place... but in the end, all these things don’t really matter.

So what if you have ton's of money? So what if you are the most popular employee? So what if you’re the star performer? So what if you own a Ferrari?

In the end, all these don’t matter. Your money will end up with another person. Your most popular employee position will be replaced by another person. There will always be another star performer. Your Ferrari will either become junk or end up with another owner.

But one thing does matter - your family and your friends. Because to them, you are not someone who can be replaced just like that. That’s why in the end, family and friends are more important than everything else.

Cherish the people close to you. Tell them you’re glad to have met them in this world. I know it sounds strange because few of my friends replied “Are you OK?” after I told them. But well, we’ll never know what might happen in the future. And there’s definitely no harm in saying that earlier.

So from now on……..take things easy. Because remember, in the end, what matters most is your contribution to the society……..and your position in the heart of your friends and family.

-Scott Osterhage