Life is fucking fleeting.
I have had such high highs and such low lows this month. I guess I’ve been lucky to not have had to face mortality as much as I have had to in the last couple weeks.
Elizabeth Brackett died today. She was a WTTW icon and one of those women I admired from afar; her tenacity, her vigor, her later in life story of discovering journalism around 34 years old, and then spending the next four decades mastering it. Not to mention her athleticism. She was a triathlete. In addition to her never-ending buff arms, there was so much to respect about this woman.
She died today, a couple days after being found unconscious off a bike trail in Chicago. A coma and a couple of fractured vertebras would inevitably cause her death.
And while we once shared a podium celebrating Emmy wins, it’s not like we were ever BFFs. But the announcement of her death has had a strange effect on me.
We try, as a society, to be perfect, to live fast and furious, to drink green juice and go vegan and beat ourselves up in the gym so we can live a healthy, long life. We do this in essence to feel invincible. But in an instant, it can all be taken away. And all that striving for perfection goes out the window. Because no matter how much you try to be a size 2, you could walk out into the middle of a crosswalk and meet your end.
That isn’t to scare anyone in submission, and we’re not programmed to be hermit crabs and live a life of solitary confinement (although, with the advent of Amazon, we’re starting to veer that direction). It’s just that sometimes, I think we should give each other a break, and just have the beer, just watch the silly movie, just take the long way home, to at least savor the moment that is in front of you.
I hate how death makes me strive to appreciate the moment. I wish I was one of those people who could just live in the moment, not care about the future, and forget about the past. I wish I had that kind of Eckhart Tolle Yoda-ness in me. But alas, I don’t. I’m a self-defined charmingly neurotic planner who is just trying to win at this silly little thing called life. But if today has taught me anything, it is neither silly nor little.
Savor today. this moment. You just.never.know.
RIP Elizabeth.
