Perspective

I like humor. This, if you’ve ever spent ten minutes with me, is readily obvious. I believe it’s a grossly underrated tool and for those of you who’ve followed my writing, you know first hand that it’s my weapon of choice in our collective struggle with weight control. I simply enjoy writing things that make people laugh.

Unfortunately, I have to warn you up front: this post isn’t one of them.

I’ve been frantically trying to pull the new site together over the past several weeks. It was more of an undertaking than I thought. I’d struggle with layout and worry about graphics. I’d spend hours trying to do things like make drop shadows look just right — only to cut them out completely the very next day. The minutiae of our day to day tasks overwhelms us at times. We worry about the tiniest of details and easily lose sight of the big picture.

As I spent Sunday evening putting the finishing touches on everything, about nine hundred miles north of me a seventeen year old boy headed a short way out into a lake. No one knows exactly what caused it, but he suddenly panicked. It was obvious something was wrong. One of his three friends, a sixteen year old girl and a strong swimmer herself, immediately went out to help. She did everything she could, but the truth was she was up against someone fifty pounds heavier and who wasn’t thinking clearly. He grabbed a tight hold of her and they both went down.

And just like that, two young lives lost.

Meanwhile, I’m uploading a new web site, worrying about drop-shadows, and trying to think up some goofball material for this week’s posts.

I didn’t know the boy. I might have met the girl once. I honestly don’t know. For the two of you out there who’ve read my book, you might remember Stephanie out of my cast of characters. I’ve known her for more than twenty years now and we’ve spent a huge chunk of that time fretting over one pound lost and two pounds gained. The girl who drowned trying to save her friend was Stephanie’s niece. I found out about the incident just yesterday morning when she sent me a link to an article. I was stunned by the news and spent most of the day thinking about it. A lot.

I didn’t have to know the girl personally to be moved by this. I have my own fifteen year old daughter who has spent plenty of time with friends at the waterside. Maybe that was it. Maybe this was just too close to home. It’s one of those things that only happens to “other people” until you get a slap in the face like this. What I do know is that it definitely gives you a little perspective.

Frankly, though, you can have the perspective back if this is how much it costs.