Life is fleeting, so they say. Change is around every corner and the end is coming inevitably one day to everyone and everything. Huge change like the death of a friend or family member is what mostly comes to mind when we reflect on the fleetingness of life. Other events can give us that sense of loss and emptiness, too, though. Make you wonder how things can be in your life for long time and then suddenly be gone. Have you ever had a restaurant that you spent years going to just all of a sudden close? Or a view that you saw all the time when driving through town all of a sudden be gone because of new construction? It makes you question the randomness of everything.
There have been a number of these events happening around us recently. A road that we use all the time to and fro our neighborhood has been under construction for years now. It has gone from a two lane road to now the final stages of a four lane road. Huge trees have been removed, some houses removed, barrier walls erected, new traffic lights installed – and the view from driving down this road is now forever different. The work is finally almost done and now a new normal will have to be gotten used to. Another area I pass multiple times a day coming and going to work is being torn down and rebuilt as a new shopping center. What used to be a huge lot of trees and fields and a historic house is now is now all gone. Well, the house is being moved to a different spot on the lot and will be used somehow as part of the shopping center, but everything else is gone. A local grocery store chain that has been in this area since I was a kid announced recently that it is closing. A favorite attraction of ours at Busch Gardens closed in the off season. We’ve been on it so many times and had no idea that the last time was the last time. There is the national story of Toys R Us closing. A pretty iconic ending for most of us. When my wife was pregnant with our daughter, Babies R Us was a staple in our life for a while. We spent so much time there planning and learning and dreaming. Of course, it was where we were registered for baby showers and where we got so much of what got us through the first few years of our daughter’s life. As she grew our visits naturally shifted to Toys R Us. So many trips to wander the aisles checking out with the kid all that was cool. For a while we were getting credit card reward gift cards at Christmas time for Toys R Us in order to do most of the Christmas shopping. Even though our daughter has grown up and out of Toys R Us, she mentioned the other week when she heard about their closing how bummed she was.
We are big supporters of our college’s sports teams. We get seasons tickets to basketball and football every year. This year was a pretty successful one for the basketball team. They finished second in the conference with a 25-7 record. A big part of that success was the development this year of our big guy, Trey Porter. It was a breakout junior year from him with career scoring stats and dominate defensive play. Everybody was looking forward to his senior year and the team we would have competing for a championship next year. Except – Trey decided once the season was over that he was going to transfer. Transfer to a power conference school where he could get more exposure. More tv time and possibly a trip to the dance in the NCAA tournament. Here one day gone the next – with all the capital built and expectations for next year gone with him. Stuff like this and how mid-major schools are being squeezed out of post season play by the corrupt big money players in the NCAA are making it harder to justify all the money and time spent supporting. Give us more, give us more! Come out and support, come out and support! But why? So that our support can help build top talent just so they can run to bigger schools? So that our team can have a successful season – a season that used to mean you were a shoo in for the NCAA tournament or at least the NIT – but now means nothing, so that the 8th or 9th place team in a power 5 conference can get in instead? Big money. Maybe our little money should be used for more travel or investments…
Then there was the big Green Flash that briefly illuminated our world, but has now gone out forever. Five or six years ago Green Flash Brewery of San Diego decided to open a brewery here in Virginia Beach. And the big news was that they were going to put it right down the street from where I work. It would be the biggest brewery in the area and would be in the same part of the world we lived and worked. Our favorite breweries were in Norfolk, which we had the opportunity to visit frequently, and there were numerous small breweries popping up around Virginia Beach, but this would be a big brand name place right in our back yard. It took awhile after the announcement to see any life in the project, but eventually there was a groundbreaking. Then a long construction period, which I got to watch daily first hand as I came and went from work each day. I watched the whole thing go up, brick by brick. Finally, a grand opening. Thus began many visits by the fire pits, out in the spring and summer evenings, quick stops on errands or visits with out of town visitors. We still liked our favorite Norfolk based brewery, but it was so nice having a cool place close to home to go hang out. My company even had our Christmas party there last year. Then, quickly, news broke that the brewery was listed for sale. It never reopened. Literally here one day and gone the next. After all the time it took to build and open and considering how busy the place was when we visited – it was stunning how quickly it all fell apart. Now the building is empty. Hopefully a new brewery will take it over, but until then it is just a sad reminder how fleeting everything can be.
Everything is temporary and nothing is certain, of course. Just this week my dad had a heart “event”. Maybe it was a heart attack, but it led to a quick couple days of tests, hospital visits, and a brand new shiny stent installed. Life is fleeting, but if you have today then go out and enjoy it. There may not be a tomorrow…
dave's word 