Today is the Only Guarantee

I just came across the incredibly sad news that the husband of one of Dystel & Goderich's authors, Jennie Perillo, died suddenly at the young age of 51, leaving behind his wife and their two daughters, age 8 and 3. Jennie made an eloquent post about her husband's passing on her blog and put up a heart wrenching video of her husband dancing with one of their daughters. I'm teary eyed just linking the post and video. She closes her post by saying, "today is the only guarantee we can count on." That is so true.

With news like this I can't help but think about my own mortality. I'm younger than Jennie's husband, but not that much younger to be foolish to believe that such an untimely death can happen to me. I have a 6 year old son and my wife is pregnant with our second child. What if I leave them behind in an instant?

I realize that I have one wish in life, a selfish wish, but a wish nonetheless. That I get to see my children become adults. I've suffered my share of bad things in life and I know an undeniable truth--bad things happen to good people just like they do to bad people. On a tangent, that's why I thought the underlying premise of the movie Signs was inherently flawed. A pastor loses faith because his wife dies? Really? Hello, bad things happen to everyone. In fact, the most terrible things usually happen unexpectedly, like what happened to Jennie and her daughters this past weekend.

All we have--all I have--is today. I kissed my wife and son goodbye this morning as I went to work and she was dropping him off at camp. Am I guaranteed to see them again tonight? Tomorrow? No. That's life and we live in an unbelievably cruel world. All I know is that I'll always love them and cherish every moment we have together.