Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

September 2008 is certainly etching itself as month to remember. Hurricanes hitting the Gulf Coast and the financial industry has put the federal government more involved in our daily lives than we are used to. FEMA pod sites on Nasa Rd 1. FDIC seizing my bank and selling it to my former bank. Washington politics naked before us with the fierce dialogue between the House Republicans and the rest of Capitol Hill and the White House. Upset citizens disgusted with excesses. A Presidential debate in a few hours. Oh yes we are still in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't recall such turbulence since the war in Vietnam.

But this will all pass, the Union will be preserved and our economy will sort itself out. Democracy and capitalism works fine thank you.

So in the midst of this turbulence, what hubris drives me to worry the minor trials and tribulations that concern me? So I have not swam, biked or ran since the Wednesday before Hurricane Ike? A variety of reasons have conspired to restrain me....the hurricane....a fall that injured my left side.....my ongoing struggle with my lower left leg and foot........a horribly bad cold.

Indeed would it matter if I could not do any of these sports that I love? Would it really matter? I can't say it would. Not when I think about the colleague that died of a heart attack this morning while running in a park in Brussels. Not when I think about the 36 year old alumnus of my alma mater who died yesterday of cancer. He has a blog and wrote that one of the most cherished moments of his life is when he ran a few laps around a high school track near the end of his illness.

I have my health. I have my family. We have a roof over our head. Life is good. Don't ever forget it.