I intend this to be my last post which is COVID related. As an exception, I may have a throwback article about the impact to business, but it’s not planned. For this post, I’m going to talk about something more directly related to the virus and its impact on individuals. It’s something I’ve touched on briefly in past posts. It’s fear. More specifically, it’s the fear of death that surrounds this illness.
One of my favorite movies is TOP GUN. It’s fun, it has planes, and it has relationships. I really shouldn’t have to insert a spoiler alert here, because by now everyone on the planet should have seen this movie, but here it is: **SPOILER ALERT** – The scene where Goose dies, has a huge emotional impact. But there is another scene I want to hit on today. It’s early on in the movie and really sets up the situation for TOP GUN’s story line. Cougar, a Navy F-14 pilot, has just come face to face with a Russian MIG. The experience forces him to realize he is in a life or death situation. It shakes him. He is married, has a young son he hasn’t even seen yet, and death scares him.
After the experience, we come upon a scene where Cougar is facing his commanding officer, “Stinger” Jardian. He is sweating profusely, and visibly shaken. Here’s the scene:
Stinger: Cougar, you should be in sickbay. What’s on your mind?
Cougar: My wife and kid, sir. I almost orphaned him today, and I’ve never even seen him. I don’t know what happened up there, but I was so scared.
Stinger: Come on; we’ve seen this before
Cougar: No, sir. I’m holding on too tight. I’ve lost the edge.
Cougar: I’m sorry, sir.
Cougar lays his wings pin on the desk.
Cougar: I’m sorry.
Cougar is hanging on too tight. He’s lost the edge. He’s lost the ability to take risk. He’s lost the ability to meet death face to face. He just wants to stay alive. He wants to hang on to life.
A lot of us are like Cougar. We are hanging on too tight. We are hanging on to life so tight – we want to extend life just as long as we can – we are so fearful of the end – that we are missing out on living.
Another **SPOILER ALERT** – You don’t get out of this alive. In the final scene of this drama film called LIFE, you die. There isn’t any way around it. There won’t be any script rewrites or a director’s change in the ending. You will die. And unless you get a terminal disease, how you die will likely remain a secret until the end. You won’t be like the old man in BIG FISH (another of my favorite movies) who gets to look into the witch’s eye and see his future. The script is closely guarded and there will likely be no cast or production crew leaks to tell us how it goes.
It could be COVID-19 that takes you out. It could be a car accident on the way to get a COVID test. It could be a heart attack when you see the results of the test. It could be that none of those do it, and you die in your sleep at 105 years old because your heart just can’t go any longer. The point is: You are going to Die.
Now, if you are religious or theological, you may believe there is something beyond this life. If you are a Christian, you likely have faith that Jesus died for your sins to allow you the opportunity to live eternally in Heaven. If you are of some pagan, life worshiping belief, you may feel that you need to make the most out of this life because its all you have. If you are an atheist, you likely believe there is nothing after this life and we are all just worm food anyway. But no matter what your belief, if you are holding on too tight, you will be disappointed when your time comes. You will find great discomfort when you realize you spent your last days, or a significant portion of your life, just trying to make your days add up instead of making them count. There is a difference.
That family friend I mentioned. He lived. He served his community in so many ways he would make your head spin. Military, EMT, Cop, Firefighter, volunteer – he did it all. He was generous. He was the first guy there to help and the first one to open his wallet. If there was anyone who deserved to beat this illness, it was him. He was in his forties. He still had a huge amount of life and giving left. He made his short life count. So did my dad. My dad was kind of like him. Career Navy, volunteer firefighter, EMT, served his community for thirty years, but at least my dad got to live into his seventies. Yet, at some point, both their lives ended. And so will yours.
Will it end in fear? Will it end in hiding? Will it end avoiding contact with others? Will you spend months avoiding your kids, and grand kids, and great grand kids, or even your neighbors, just to die once you are brave enough to venture out of your cave? Don’t hold on too tight to something that you could never control in the first place. Live Life. You have a finite number of days, use them wisely. Make them count.
