What Really Matters…

by Mark H Cohen on 01 December 2009

Our middle-daughter, Lindsay, was in town for the holiday. She is a freshman in college, going to PSU in Oregon. It was great to have her and her older sister Erin at home.

Before she left town on Sunday, Lindsay was checking Facebook and saw some news that disturbed her. Darby Gilbert had been in a car accident and died.r253149_1043330

Lindsay hadn’t known Darby all that well, but well enough. By all accounts she was a lovely girl who was well-liked in school and the community. As a senior in High School, the future was hers…

It gets you to thinking, you know? How horrible to lose a friend like this. To lose a child like this. I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be her parents, or the parents of the others who were in the car with her. My heart goes out to them.

Hitting so close to home, it made me step back a bit. To consider where I’ve been, what I have, and where I’m going. It could happen to any one of us, at anytime. We have this precious gift, life, that we don’t know how to handle sometimes. We take it for granted. We don’t to it purposefully, it just happens.

How often do we have tiffs and leave the house angry? Or to be so wrapped up in work that we forget to say goodbye when we leave in the morning? How often do we say things that we really don’t mean in anger and leave in a huff? How often do we have”grass is greener” thoughts without putting additional effort into what we have?

Incidents like this get me to thinking, for the person in that crash could have been the person I neglected to say goodbye to, whom I never saw again…

I’ve been fortunate to not have this happen to me. And I don’t think about our propensity as humans to take things for granted a lot  – although I’m sure I’d be better off if I did.

But I am thinking about it now, and it is a harsh reminder that one of life’s realities is that it is far to easy in this hectic world to let what really matters slip into “take it for granted land.”

A fact not lost on the parents of the three teens in that car.

So take a moment to give that extra hug, won’t you?

About the author:

Mark H Cohen - who has written 23 articles on Fairfield Voice.

Mark is principal of Colloquy Digital which he founded in 2009. He started his career in the mail room in the ad business and in 1994, founded one of the first interactive ad agencies in New York. A self-proclaimed marketing technologist, Mark loves gadgets and almost as much as he does music, animals, the outdoors, sports, and spicy blog-provoking food that can only be found in Fairfield on occasion. He graduated from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Denver Program and has spent countless hours volunteering and on not-for-profit boards in Denver and in his new home town of Fairfield, IA. He resides on the east end of town with his wife Laura - who you may know as the Executive Director of Noah's Ark - their son Cody, a black lab, their newly adopted dog that he blogged about , three cats, and a pond full of fish. His daughters Erin and Lindsay are attending Colorado State University and Portland State University respectively and Cody attends FHS where he plays football and Babe Ruth baseball.

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3 Responses to “What Really Matters…”

  1. Susan Hirschmann says:
    December 1, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Really enjoy your articles, Mark.

  2. Mark Cohen says:
    December 1, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    Thank you Susan, I greatly appreciate it.

  3. Will Merydith says:
    December 1, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I cannot even begin to imagine the pain of losing a child. It is something I think about now and then, and tell myself that I need to live each day honoring how short the time is that we all have together.

    My heart goes out to Darby's family. I will think of them when my family lights our advent candle this Sunday.

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