Dave's Wisdom

Dave is one hell of a guy, never mind that he's recovering from hip replacement surgery. And, I pity the fool, he's married to my sister.

A bunch of us went to Acapulco last February to live it up a little bit. Months earlier, I was considering whether to go, when Dave came up with one of his Davisms:

We'll all be dead someday, so don't even waste your time thinking about it.

That's not exactly what he said, but that's the gist of it. And he's right. I have 10 years or 20 years or 3 days left, so if I want to see Acapulco, there's no time like the present. I went.

This could be a story of great irony, except that I lived through the trip. I love jumping into the waves and letting them carry me back toward the shore, and I spent a good deal of time playing in the water. Without going into great detail, I didn't appreciate the severity of the undertow, and one day the lifeguards had to come out to save me. Thank God and my lucky stars that my brother Thom was close enough to know that I needed help. The day before, I was alone while challenging the waves, and had the undertow been as powerful...

I've not spent a day since that I haven't thought about that experience. When the tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, all I could think about was the wave (no tsunami, certainly) that almost did me in. I was minutes from giving up. I have a sincere appreciation for the power of water in large volumes.

So maybe Dave is not so smart. Then again, if I had not gone to Acapulco, I would have missed one of the four or five near-death experiences of my life. And nothing makes you appreciate life more.