Thankful for perspective

This time of year, everyone likes to engage in a ritualistic counting of blessings, and many bloggers like me try to write a meaningful piece about being thankful.

Neither of these are necessarily insincere, but both seem to smack of cliche and lack perspective from time to time.

My employer recently began accepting applications for a sales position.  (If you have sales experience and could bear the thought of me as a co-worker, by all means let me know.)  Filling these kinds of positions usually takes the same pattern of events: An opening announcement is made in various locations, and the resumes begin flowing.  Then the screening process begins.

Our company tries to find out as much as possible about applicants seeking employment, a task made easier by this era of online profiles and internet searches.  (It did with me.)  Last week, our recruiter performed an internet search for one particularly promising applicant - looking for a LinkedIn profile, or the like - and was taken aback by the first story that led the search results.

It was his obituary.  This young man applied at my company on Monday, and was killed in a car accident on Tuesday.  He was 26 years old.

When we learned of this, a couple of my colleagues and I responded with the usual cliche, "Wow.  You just don't know, do you?"  It was all we could think to utter.  I'm not sure why it affected me the way it did; I never knew the guy, obviously.  Perhaps it was a jolt that reminded me there is much we plan in this world and much we strive for that, in the end, doesn't matter all that much compared with what we already have.

This really is not intended to be a pre-holidays guilt trip or buzz kill, but it is worth noting that many people will have trouble giving thanks at all this time of year.  It will be perfectly understandable for some, like that young man's family who just eight days ago never dreamed there would be an extra spot at the Thanksgiving table.  Others, it seems, may lack perspective on just what gifts they've been afforded.

Hopefully we can all gain a little perspective from the loss of a potential co-worker I never knew.  The holidays bring a certain amount of "normal" stress - scheduling, traveling, entertaining, etc. - but it seems many of us have it much better than we'd like to admit.  What's the point of wasting so much emotional energy over seeing family and friends, when many do not have the same number of family and friends to see?

This post may not satisfy the cliche-free criterion I was striving for, but we all need a reminder here and there of what's real and what's...real.

You feel me?



AF