One word that has confused me lately: perspective. As in, why does it take the worst things around us to use this word so freely?
From the shootings at the school in Newtown to the Boston Marathon bombing, I heard this word a lot: perspective. These tragedies make those who were lucky enough not to be affected by it to say that these horrible events give them perspective to what really matters in life: family, friends, relationships, love. In general, everything great in life.
But why does it take tragedies and bad things around us to get this perspective? Do we take life for granted all of the other days in life? Perhaps I take some stuff for granted, but I try to enjoy every breath I take and every moment I have with the people I love and care about. While I think we could all use a little perspective from time to time, I don't think we should have to rely on large-scale tragedies to make us realize things that we should realize all the time.
What inspired this perspective blog? It wasn't any of the items mentioned above, nor was it the recent tragedies in Oklahoma due to the unreal storms, including devastating EF-5 tornadoes that completely destroyed a city near Oklahoma City.
If you've seen the above video before, then you likely know the story of Zach Sobiech, who passed away on Monday after a 3.5 year battle with osteosarcoma, which is a cancerous bone tumor that develops in children (The video above describes it in more detail). During his battle with the disease, which he knew would take his life at a very young age, Zach adhered to the Andy Dufresne philosophy from Shawshank Redemption of "get busy living or get busy dying." Part of this living was through song, as he demonstrated above with his song that recognized his nearing death and unwillingness to let it define the rest of his time on Earth.
His family and friends knew of his fate too, and while it was hard for them to deal with the fate of their loved one dying way too young, they knew they had to have the same outlook on life that Zach had. It didn't do Zach or his loved ones any good to stress about the short time left he had when there was still plenty of living to do. So as demonstrated in the video below, they cherished every moment they had together (note, this video is a little longer but is well worth the watch if you have the time.
I recommend looking up his story if you want to know more details of what exactly he went through and some of the lives he's touched. I only learned of this story yesterday (unfortunately, after I heard that he had passed) and was amazed at the attitude he carried based on the video and documentary seen above. There's also a celebrity video that was created by Soul Pancake (a Rainn Wilson - aka Dwight Schrute from the Office - production) of people singing Zach's song.
It's stories like Zach's that justify the way I live every day. For we are all just like Zach, more than we realize. Our days here are finite, for all of us. We all wish to live as productive and as long of a life as we can, but there are no guarantees.
The main difference with Zach and us is that he had a really good idea of when he was going to die, so he decided that he would make the most of his time while he was still here. Just because we don't know our end date doesn't mean we shouldn't live like every day is important and every moment is important - because it is.
I know we all get caught up in life, which causes us to take steps back when shocking things happen that make us reflect. But at no time should we ever lose sight of what is or should be important to us on a daily basis: our loved ones, friends and family, the moments we have with them. That's something I will never need perspective on.
