Edition 451 – The Fragility of Life
It’s Wednesday night at 10.40pm. It’d been a long day. I’d been up early that morning, in my hotel in Melbourne, as I prepare for a full day of meetings with a fantastic client we have there. We covered lots of ground in our time together, talking about current issues and the performance of the business.
At 4pm, I’m picked up by my driver and he drops me back to Tullamarine for the trip home. Some weather in both Melbourne and Sydney delays the flight, so it’s close to 10pm before we finally land in the Harbour City.
Even though it’s late, there’s a reasonable amount of traffic on the M5 Motorway, as I head back home. Then, up ahead, on the 110 kmh stretch at Ingleburn, I notice a sea of red tail lights. The traffic is slowing, then stopped, in all four lanes. Patiently, everyone moves into the far right lane, all whilst there’s no emergency services or Police on site. It’s hard to know what’s happening, given how dark it is.
Out of the darkness, as I’m crawling forward, I spot the issue. A semi trailer, carrying a shipping container, is hard up against the concrete support to the overhead road bridge, in the breakdown lane. The prime mover itself is in the first lane, at 45 degrees to the trailer. As we all make our way through, there’s debris everywhere on the road, strewn across all four lanes.
At the point where I pull alongside of the prime mover, I glance over at the horrific scene. In front of the truck is a ute, facing in the opposite direction. It’s mounted up against the front of the prime mover, partially airborne. I’m pretty good at spotting cars, but I can’t be sure if it is, or isn’t, a Ford Ranger. It’s hard to tell when both the left side wheels appear to have sheared off the vehicle.
Ahead, off to the side, are about 6 vehicles, all stopped, all appearing to render assistance, before the Police, whose flashing lights I can now see in the distance, arrive on scene. What I’ve just seen, for a moment, has rattled me. When I arrive home, I can’t settle. I eventually drift off to sleep, but it’s disturbed. The accident scene is still in my head.
Next morning, as the radio clicks on at 5.30am, the traffic reports the M5 is still closed – 7 hours after I travelled through. It comes out later that day that the passenger in the ute has passed away. They were in their mid 30’s and, seemingly, their life was slipping away not far from where I was alongside them, not long beforehand, the previous evening.
I’m penning this three days later. I’m still rattled. If I’d been five minutes earlier, would I have been caught up in that accident? Would I have been one of those, off to the side, endeavouring to assist those trapped in the vehicle? Who knows?
What I do know is this. Life is too short.
Spend your time with the people you want to spend it with. If someone that is in your life is disrespectful or doesn’t appreciate you for who you are, then move on.
Get out the best crockery and use it, instead of saving it for “special occasions”.
Book the holiday to that place you’ve said you’ve always wanted to go to, but have come up with a myriad of excuses as to why you yet haven’t.
Wake up early and appreciate the glory of the pre-sunrise, when the dawn chorus starts their beautiful song, rising in crescendo as the sun itself peeks over the horizon.
We forever put off things, not knowing how long we’ll have to do it. We put up with people when, really, we should simply walk away and start afresh. We live for the future, when today is the most important of all.
If not now, when?
This Week’s Tip
“Live for the moment.”