You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy
LIFE IT UP!
The Vegas Massacre reminds me of the fragility of life. It reminds me that existence is a delicate gift to be cherished.
LIFE IT UP.
The death of superstar Tom Petty reminds me that life ends without warning, sometimes shattering like fine crystal on a cold marble floor.
LIFE IT UP.
The sudden, unexpected finality of life reminds me to LIFE IT UP!
When I feel the time clock mentality of the job, I am reminded to Life it up.
When I feel the dark storm clouds of mundane existence, I remember to Life it up.
Life it up is about celebrating each moment like a birthday present with a big bow. Life it up is a constant wake up call reminding us to treat each day like a gift we get to live.
Laugh. Smile. High Five a stranger.
Life it up.
Because in the end, like a pinball machine that goes Tilt, the game is over, the flippers no longer flip, and the steel ball rolls silently back into the slot waiting for the next person to pull the lever.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 1ST 2017
The images of Sunday are so abhorrent, so revolting, they should not be viewed without an airplane vomit bag.
The thought of the carnage is repulsive and nauseating. The lack of regard for human life is so astounding, it defies logic.
Cell phone video of the atrocity has now played a million times across the planet. The video always begins with a rapid staccato of an automatic weapon firing from the darkness.
Pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop
That’s the heinous sound of death firing from a window blown out of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Somewhere in the darkness, evil incarnate is at work, extinguishing the sunshine that exists below.
The bouncy cell phone footage always shows unsuspecting people standing up, unaware, unsure of what is about to happen.
“We thought it was firecrackers,” they will say.
Then comes the hysteria, the pandemonium as innocence is assaulted. In the frenzy, sizzling chunks of metal rip through flesh and end life in the time it takes to squeeze a trigger.
Each pop is a life altered. Each pop is a reminder to Life it up.
One after another after another, humanity is mowed down in the Vegas night by whizzing, invisible projectiles of death.
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop p0p
Somewhere in the distance, in the dark, lost in a psychopathic fog, a madman sits in a window with a rifle and fires high velocity bullets indiscriminately into a crowd of life, of hope, of joy.
The carnage, the atrocity, the insult to rationalization is so profound, we can only stare at the images and cry.
How does the evil of a single maniacal lunatic change everything?
It doesn’t matter. It has.
Life it up.
The last 24 hours has punched all of us in the face with a brick.
In a single moment in time, a mad man with a deleterious plan has slaughtered hundreds, while making millions feel unsafe.
Without warning, without reason, with no more effort than it takes to pull a trigger and ignite a projectile full of fury, a lunatic with no calculated agenda or known affiliation has changed the course of history.
More than 50 people dead. More than 500 people injured, some so critically, their lives may never be repaired.
In one moment, they are cheering, dancing, singing, 20,000 people all connected by this musical moment.
Then, POP POP POP POP POP.
Some die. Some run. Everyone cries.
LIFE IT UP.
Remember to remember this day, this moment.
LIFE IT UP.
Sometimes this moment is all we get and many times it ends without warning, without feeling, without so much as a pop pop pop to warn you that the end is near.
Life is a journey that starts with a blank road map. It begins and ends, but where the lines on the map go is truly unknown till they are penciled in by each of us.
When will it end? How will it end?
Death is an esoteric reality that affects every breathing soul.
And when it’s over, then what? Cosmic Dust? A walk with the angels? A hot foot in Hell?
Nobody knows.
Death is part of life. It’s part of the journey.
LIFE IT UP!
Many of us take life for granted. We don’t mean to, we just do. Some days it’s hard to remember to take a moment and inhale the sunshine, to caress the warm breeze. Some days we forget to remember that life is a gift that has an expiration date.
LIFE IT UP.
Many of us get out of bed, groggy and tired. We limp to the shower, we slurp down a cup of coffee, we rush off to a job that will commandeer 8 hours of our life.
We treadmill our way through the day, punching a clock, shuffling papers, saying hi to people’s whose last names we often don’t know.
And the end of the day often ends like it began, in a zoo of rolling exhaust and brake lights. The same frantic souls we saw grinding to work are on the same suffocating artery heading home.
And so it goes. Day after day after day.
The Vegas Massacre was a horrific reminder to Life It Up!
Tom Petty dying unexpectedly was a solemn reminder to Life it Up!
I’m looking at the sunrise over the crest of a new dawn. I have a lot to do today. But it can wait. This moment deserves my attention. It is a Polaroid frozen in my memory. It may be the last image I get.
Remember: LIFE IT UP.
Life’s Crazy