THERE is nothing sadder than a young person dying. Take the time to
appreciate your childrenEspecially someone with a wonderful life just around the corner, the next chapter waiting to be written, filled with love poems and adventure.
Life is so fragile, a beautiful flower in a windstorm.
We are constantly told to live it to its fullest, to just do it.
The death of Shannon Smith hit hard. It stopped us in our day-after-day tracks as we read the stories and saw the photo of his last minutes of life.
True, he was more in the spotlight as a University of Hawaii football player. And he saved the head coach's 6-year-old son.
The coach and his wife almost drowned as well in the same scenario, which went from a postcard, a hand-painted memory, to a real-life horror.
What can be gained from the death of a hero, someone who fought his own survival instincts so that others would not perish?
One lesson, I guess, is that we should realize that young people especially are not immune to the dangers that lurk inside and out.
We should appreciate the young as fully as the old, take the time to stop and see that, hey, this is a good kid I have helped raise or know.
Then tell them that they are accomplishing so much, making so many proud, representing their families and friends so well.
Even those who are struggling, or born into difficulty, need encouragement to keep up the fight for a good and decent life, even when despair and pain cloud out the future that could be sunny and warm.
As the death of Shannon Smith -- and so many others his age who tragically die every day around the world -- shows, your walking and talking treasure of a son or daughter could be gone in one cruel flash of fate.
Perhaps another realization is how sometimes our passion in life can be a perilous one, which might be part of its attraction.
Whether it is a physically dangerous love or one that can overburden the mental state -- or even another person -- danger can leap out of nowhere.
Right now, I am overlooking the breathtaking Black Point bay on a day crafted in heaven.
BOATS of all shapes and sizes slip along the horizon and net fishermen practice their ancient craft, somehow keeping their feet glued to the slick underwater rocks as they continually scan the surface for a sign of their prey.
I have seen a whale breach from my post in the lawn chair. And surfers dot the waves, slashing through the white water, day after day after day.
I grew up along the shores and in the moody waters of Lake Michigan, which is basically an ocean filled with fresh water.
The sunsets and sloping sand dunes -- and even the ice sculptures it creates each winter -- are wonderful.
I learned how to swim and water ski on Lake Michigan and spent countless hours sailing and fishing on its deep and cold waters.
But, just like the sea, the power and fury of Lake Michigan could snatch a life in minutes.
Just like Shannon Smith's Slippery Slide on Kauai. He just wanted to show one of his favorite spots to people he cared about.
I had a seventh-grade classmate drown in Lake Michigan while we all swam nearby. No one was close enough to save him, as much as we tried.
But another friend once fell through the snow-covered ice just off shore and somehow survived the undertow that tried to pull him to an icy grave.
Why does something so unfair, so numbingly sad, have to happen?
The best we can do is remember Shannon Smith as a fine young man filled with passion. It is a great and lasting tribute, certainly worth emulating, for any person, of any age or background.
And these words of Helen Keller also ring true: ''Life is a daring adventure -- or nothing.''