The closure of I-70, an internet outage Wednesday morning, and the unexpected death of an old friend from elementary school have all served as a stark reminder: it’s easy to take things for granted. We assume certain things and people will always be there, always be present in our lives, and always be functioning. But there are no guarantees in this world.
In some cases, when these things we take for granted disappear, we realize we need to build better redundancy into our infrastructure — whether that’s a new travel plan or a way to do our jobs without relying on the internet.
When it comes to people, we need to remember life is fragile and unpredictable. The friend who passed away last week left some voice messages for a mutual friend, telling him what he appreciated about their friendship and about him as a person. Having that communication has been a consolation during a time of loss, and hearing his words made me stop and ask myself why we don’t do that more often?
It’s time to normalize telling the people in our lives we love them, and make a point of letting people know what we appreciate about them. It would make the world a better place all around.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
