Attitude: Unfinished Lives

I often tell myself that life is great for two reasons: 1) I have to remind myself to be thankful and appreciative of the gifts of life and 2) I have to fight against sliding back to my natural default melancholy, pessimistic “woe is me” temperament.

Having said that I also realize that life is interspersed with tragedy and disappointment. There is a time for introspection, there is a time for mourning and there is a time for despondency.

I was planning to reflect upon the tragic Gracetown shark attack this morning and how it fits into my world. But flicking through the Sunday Times I noticed so many tragedies on so many levels.

I guess we can’t have the highs without the lows, the excitement without the danger the success without the failure. That is life.

But it’s how we face and respond to these tragic milestones in life that make us what we are and define who we will become.

Usually great and inspiring quotes in life situations come from Great and Famous people― but in today’s paper I noted what may be one of the most memorable quotes that I may ever hear in my life. It comes from an everyday father who tragically lost his 17 year old son in a car-accident:

“His may have been an unfinished life, but (my son) was not an unfinished person. We could clearly see the man he was to become. Our comfort is in knowing that we produced a fine human being”.