Today is ‘count your blessings’ Wednesday in NYC

In the span of about :30 minutes this morning I received two badly needed reality checks. They were timely reminders of how fragile life is. I needed them light of the aforementioned problems I‘ve been having at A Company Called Malice, Inc.

On the way into the city I passed a terrible auto accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. It looked like a spin-out/head on collision. There were no emergency services on scene yet, so it was just people sitting on the pavement next to mangled cars with dazed looks on their faces. Awful. They were on their way to work or out of town or whatever and in a split second their lives were changed. Perhaps forever.

A short time later I was walking through Times Square and at 42nd and Broadway I passed a homeless man (or damn close to it) who had neurofibromatosis, which is the disease that John Merrick—The Elephant Man—had. His ear was three times as large as it should have been and was down on his cheek. His lower mouth and jaw were a mass of swollen, twisted flesh. He walked with his head down. It makes you wonder if there’s a God at all.

I'm typing this in Bryant Park. The sun is rising in the blue autumn sky and the streams of light are gleaming off the spire of Chrysler Building. Last night, I arrived home unexpectedly early and read to both daughters at bedtime. They, and Mrs. Wife, seemed genuinely happy to see me. Today, I don't think work is going to get me down as much as it usually does.