Do It Today, Tomorrow Isn’t Promised

There’s always tomorrow. Isn’t that a procrastinator’s excuse to put off what they (we) don’t feel like doing today?
A new family may have moved into the neighborhood, you ought to at least introduce yourself, if not welcome them into the community, but that report’s due tonight, so you put that pleasantry off until the sun comes up.
Dad hasn’t been feeling quite well, but you know, he was always putting on an act to make people feel sorry for him. It’s a pain to drive down there to see him; but you’ll call tomorrow, sure, that’ll make him feel better.
Since your kids were little, you’ve promised to take a couple days off in the summer, when they’re off from school, and take them camping.
Trouble is, the lady you work with had to take some time off for family reasons, and the vacation you planned can’t happen just now, but for sure, you’ll double promise to make it happen over the Columbus Day Weekend.
Finances aren’t rosy right now in fact they’re bad. You want to spend the money this way, your spouse wants to spend it another way.
You quarrel; utter some sharp things you really don’t mean, but the words just fall off your tongue. Out the door you storm, no kiss, no good-bye, just out the door; but you’ll make up…tonight.
All these events have probably happened to each of us at one time or another. If time has been on our side, we may have been able to carry through on those plans; trouble is, many times tomorrow doesn’t come, because life intervenes, and we don’t get that second chance.
If you ever put off until tomorrow what you should do today, maybe it’s time to consider what many schoolmates of Matt Tozer, the 16-year-old sophomore at Cape May County Technical High School, wrote on the Herald’s Web site under the story that reported his death at the hands of an alleged drunk driver.
I was impressed by the sentiments many of those teens wrote.
Although they didn’t know Matt too well, they knew he was a good guy, and, given time, they would have gotten to know him better.
Some were a bit wiser, although they did not realize it; they knew him as a friend, a young man whose religion was important to him, who was not afraid or ashamed to let his peers know what mattered most to him.
They are young, just teens, and their life seems certain to hold many tomorrows. Of course, there are no guarantees, but being youthful with the promise of a full, rich life is enough to buoy anyone.
At Naval Air Station Wildwood, I heard an old pilot reveal a truth that stuck with me about life as much as flying.
“There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there are very few old, bold pilots,” he stated.
Too many of us never truly appreciate how short life can be. A tragedy like the death of Matthew Tozer, for the first time makes a teenager see how fragile is this life we share.
All of a sudden, someone they thought would be there for years is gone. Next time they met him in the hall, they were going to say, “Hi!” and maybe chat with him some more.
Once the opportunity to interact with a friend or loved one is gone, it may never return. Youth believes the number of their days is infinite, so squandering them is allowable. Such thinking is not a recent phenomenon; it has been passed along through the ages. Don’t those recent high school graduates look at four years in college or a like number of years in the military is equivalent to four lifetimes?
Don’t their elders have a slightly different take on four years? It seems as a day or two to us as we look back.
Dad may not be faking illness this time, and that call tomorrow may not be answered. How much would it cost to simply push the buttons on the telephone and call him?
The conversation you may have will place your mind at ease, knowing that your obligation is fulfilled. You will sleep with a clear conscience.
That family you never said, “Hello” to may perish in a fire tonight, and they never got to know how good a neighbor you might have been. You will forever wish you could go back to spend five minutes with them, knock on their door and simply extend a hand to them, tell them your name, and that will do it. You might be the first and only neighbor to do that. How much will it cost? How much time will it take?
That camping trip you planned may get postponed again for another reason, and the happy moments you might have cherished forever will never happen. When the time presents itself, as well as the money to pay for it, those youngsters may well be far too old to want to spend a weekend camping with you. Then, you can only regret you did not take the time earlier in life.
The sharp words spoken will never cure the financial woes you’re experiencing, not tomorrow, not ever. I have only known a few people who had no worries about money. The rest share a common bond of never having sufficient funds for all that is wanted or needed. So why fight over money? Isn’t money used more as an extension of the will more than anything else is?
Today, right now, is all we have; make the most of every moment.