Each day that we live, we rise in the morning, we retire in the evening. And everyone does this excepting perhaps those that are grave yarders, and work at night and sleep during the day. But those too, rise and retire every day. This is the cycle of our days. During our waking hours we do things that we take so much for granted. We walk. We talk. We see. We hear. We touch. We smell. We taste. We do all of these things without thought. We take for granted that tomorrow we will do these things again. And most of the time, indeed tomorrow we will again repeat each of those things, and again we will repeat them without thought. But for each and everyone of us, there is coming a day that on tomorrow we will not do those things. Because for each of us is coming that day that we won't retire, but instead expire.
Last week, late on Friday night/early Saturday morning we lost a friend. Did I know him well? Well, yes, I did. Did he know me well? Well, no, he really didn't. We lost a friend that for so many of us brightened many of our days. A man that made the phrase "keeping it real" mean so much. And when everything was said and done, and I absorbed the immediate reality of his death, the only thing I could say was "Just Damn".
Royal Marshall, Engineer and Associate Producer of The Neal Boortz Show was stricken with a massive heart attack and at the age of 43 died.
I met Royal a couple of times over my years at The Georgia World Congress Center. He was there on each occasion for some event being hosted at The GWCC. If you were to take all of the time I spent talking with him on both occasions and added it together, you might have a total of about 5 minutes. So for me to say that he knew me would be a stretch, even if you used the most liberal imagination. He did not know me. But I knew him. I knew him from 17 years on The Neal Boortz Show. I knew him from his own couple of years with his show "The Royal Treatment". I can make the same statement about Neal Boortz, or Belinda Skelton. I've listened to Clark Howard now for many, many years and feel like I know him too. Scott Slade is someone that I spend almost every morning with, so I feel I know him as well. But I have to say that over the years I had grown to really respect Royal and so much looked forward to whatever he would add to Neal's' show each day.....and over the years he added so very much.
I am 53 years old. I have in my lifetime known death on many levels. Over the last few years not only have I lost my Mother to Cancer, but my older Brother as well. My Dad passed away when I was 19 years old. My oldest sister had two sons that was born with problems that prevented them from living lives beyond just a couple of years. I've lost friends that I was close to and that did know me well. Almost all of my aunts and uncles are passed away. And there has been numerous acquaintances over the years. Yes, I can honestly say that I know what it is like to experience the death of someone close to me. But with Royals' death I have to say that somehow it has affected me somewhat differently.
Life is in fact very fragile. I know, I know. This is not an original thought. This is not the first time that anyone of us has read or heard that comment. But the reality of the comment seems to have hit me hard. I have come to the very real knowledge that at least I take so much for granted.
When was the last time that you stood and gazed with absolute wonder and awe at the glory of a sunrise? How about a sunset?
When did you last stand and listen to the stillness of the night? Or maybe looked upon a stream or river and find yourself in amazement when you realized that all of those sounds that you heard.......the water flowing, the birds chirping, the many sounds of nature as they were lifting their voices praising our creator. I'm reminded of an old song that has the line in it "if I don't praise him the rocks are gonna cry out, glory and honor, glory and honor". Yes all of those sounds that we hear in nature I do believe is nature singing loudly to the Glory of God. It is nature having a praise service. And sadly, while I can't answer for you, I know that most of the time, I don't even notice the wonderful sound of praise going on around me; I just take for granted that tomorrow I will stop and listen, after all, the river is going to flow tomorrow, the birds are going to sing tomorrow. Right?
And I have to ask myself this question.... When was the last time that I picked up the phone and just called an old friend, someone that perhaps I just haven't talked to in a while and asked them how are they doing? I'll admit that very often I think to myself that I need to call so and so, that I haven't talked to them in a while. But of course, I'm busy when I think of it, but I tell myself that tonight, once I'm home, I'm gonna call. Then a few days later, they cross my mind again. I realize that I never did call.
You know, you probably do have tomorrow. You probably can call then. Even better, you'll just go see them. You can always do it tomorrow. Or can you?
We have right now. That's all. We are not promised tomorrow, or even an hour from now. We just have right now. Of course, we can't call everyone right now. We can't go see everyone right now. We can't stop and watch the river flow every time we pass over one. We can't stand each morning or each evening and watch the sun rise or set. We can't always stand outside and listen to the sounds of the night. But............ we do have opportunity from time to time to do these things and I would encourage you as I also encourage myself, that when we have those opportunities that we should take them; latch on to them as though that very opportunity may never be given to us again. Because even thought it might. It just might not.
And to my friend Royal............. Thank you. Thank you for 17 years of The Royal Treatment. Thank you for allowing me to know you. Thank you my friend, thank you.
And to my other friends and family. You need to expect to hear from me.
I'll be calling....................
Gary
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