BY Bill Reagan
About six thousand people die each day in the United States, over two million per year. You didn’t. Think about that for a moment. You and about 326,500,000 other Americans made it through 2017. Whether you are twenty-two or sixty-two you get another chance in 2018.
What are you gonna do with it?
Do something useful. The great plague of our modern age is boredom. We have thousands of television choices, all on demand and there’s nothing on TV. We have an infinite Facebook feed to flip our thumbs on. We can have whatever we want, but getting everything we want never satisfies us. We are bored by the uselessness of it all. So get up. Volunteer. Join a club. Do some work.
Do something important. Pride is a double edged emotion. Pride
Bill Reagan
accompanied by arrogance will wreck you. Wholesome pride, the kind that comes from the satisfaction of a job well done, feeds the soul and motivates us to be our better selves. You probably will not change the world, but you can change your little corner of the world for the better. That is important, something to be proud of.
Do something hard. This is the most important part. Eleanor Roosevelt once said “you must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Only by doing something hard will you fail, and it is only by failing that you ever learn anything, acquire new skills or knowledge, or grow as a person. Put the hard things on the top of your to do list for 2018.
Do something fun. Six thousand people will not make it through today. If they could have tomorrow back they would certainly want to have some fun. They would not spend their day worrying. Nor would they waste it with guilt or anger. They would enjoy the day doing the things they love with the ones they love.
So, today, tomorrow and every day, remember that you have something six thousand Americans have lost – life. Do something with it.
Happy New Year.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
