Just Once

One night several years ago I was ratcheting through the channels on the television and for some reason had paused on this specific channel.  There was an old movie showing about a man that was an airplane crash investigator and there had been a crash that he had been dispatched to investigate.  In the movie he was saying goodbye to his wife and son and his son did not want his father to leave because it was the night of his high school graduation and his father was going to miss it.  The man pats his son on the head and says that he is sorry but he has to go, and then he leaves.

There were many chains of thought that came to mind upon seeing that specific scene in the movie.  Should the man be considered "super dad", off to solve a big airplane crash.  He is probably not "dead-beat dad" that wants nothing to do with his family but that thought did briefly cross my mind.  Perhaps he is "clueless dad" that just doesn't see through his male ego haze clearly enough to have his priorities in order.  Being that the movie was older and therefore from a different era of thinking, it was probably made with the "super dad" mentality.  In today's world the "clueless dad" would probably be more fitting.  Clueless to the needs of his family, especially his son, who was about to celebrate a very successful achievement in life. 

I realized that the direction my chain of thought was leading me was actually not anything new.  I had heard it expressed many times as "you only live once" or other similar expressions.  It had always seemed like a shallow and somewhat rebellious justification type of comment, until now.  As is the case with any word, comment or phrase, the selection of the words that are used in the delivery of the message can make a world of difference.  Sometimes replacing a single word can change the entire thought and feel of a comment or phrase.  If the rebel matter-of-factness is removed from the phrase "you only live once", the phrase would read as follows.  "There are many one-time events in life.  If you miss these events, they are gone and you cannot get them back."

A human being's life is full of events.  Some are natural and most are what we impose on ourselves for various reasons.  There are some events that are routine and repetitive, while other events can be completely random and spontaneous.  It is true that you only live once and if you miss any of those "once in life" events, they are gone forever.