John's Blog

per·spec·tive: A mental view or outlook: “It is useful occasionally to look at the past to gain a perspective on the present” (Fabian Linden).....The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective....Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view: the perspective of the displaced homemaker....The ability to perceive things in their actual interrelations or comparative importance: tried to keep my perspective throughout the crisis.

Sometimes it's so easy to lose perspective. Just yesterday morning I had been looking at the newspaper and the web and seeing numerous pieces on Christo and his installation of the gates in Central Park. Even though most of the reviews seem to be good and it seems to be a crowd pleaser it just didn't grab me or impress me. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually a big fan of grand pieces of public art, but it's just this one that was leaving me cold, maybe because I view Central Park as a work of art in itself, but then again it might just be that I can be a real stick in the mud sometimes.

Before I could sit down and type up my curmudgeon like thoughts, a sad event took place that changed my perspective. I received word that a friend of ours who was a young, vibrant, and apparently healthy guy just dropped over at his desk of a massive heart attack and passed away. Words cannot adequately express the shock and sadness that an event like this brings on; his warmth, kindness, bighearted generosity, and good humor will leave a giant void in all the lives that he touched.

There is never a "good part" to a story like this, but I have to think if there were one it would be as a wake up call to remember the fleeting nature of life, and as a reminder to enjoy every moment to the fullest. All of us take so much for granted, and sometimes don't appreciate life as the gift it is. We need to take joy in what we do and celebrate the good things when the opportunity presents itself, and roll with the bad stuff, since it could always be worse. Somehow those damn gates don't look all that bad anymore.