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closeGuest column: Life is short — don’t waste it
Joan Cronk / guest columnist
On July 23, 2000, my husband John and I were among 80 people who boarded rafts for a trip down the Nisqually River. At the end of the day, 79 of us walked off the river. Our raft of eight had overturned and John was killed.
His body was never recovered.
When the raft tipped over, I was thrown under a logjam. I had one clear thought. It was, “This is what it is like to die.”
But I didn’t die. I came out of it with a black eye and a few bruises, very shaken, cold and sad.
When John got out of bed that Sunday morning, he didn’t think that would be his last day on earth. He fully expected to return to our home. The accident changed my attitude about a lot of things.
You always wonder, “Why was I saved?” I have no answer to that. I don’t think I survived so I could find a cure for cancer or adopt orphan children, but I do enjoy life more than I used to.
Early in June, I attended my city of Puyallup District 1 meeting. Folks in the audience that night were angry and combative. The time allotted for discussion revolved around traffic, traffic circles, speeding cars and school buses. It appears that Puyallup politics has become a blood sport.
Now I don’t want a whole bunch of e-mails telling me how important this issue is; I know that. But the anger rippling through the crowd that night was pretty amazing. People were brittle and they were rude.
Our City Manager Gary McLean gave high marks to our parks and rec people and the police for keeping our city safe. Councilmember Kathy Turner thanked everyone for coming and applauded the Farmers’ Market, one of the best around. All other attempts at any kind of positive remarks were like trying to drag a dog upstairs.
I wrote two things on my note pad that night that were important to me — the Aug. 8 opening of the new Puyallup City Hall and Concerts in the Park.
I wondered, what if those people knew this was to be their last day on earth? Would politics and traffic be the most important thing in their lives? Would they be facing their neighbors and city officials with the fierce anger that spilled out?
So when I got home from the meeting that night, I poured myself a glass of wine and sat on my front porch. I thought about Liza Minnelli and the musical “Cabaret” when she belts out “Come taste the wine, come hear the band, come blow your horn, start celebrating, right this way your table‘s waiting.”
You just never know when it might be your last day — your very last day. Have a glass of wine, put your feet up, dig in our fabulous Puyallup dirt, plant a flower, watch the traffic.
Life may be a cabaret old chum, but it is short. Life is very short indeed.