Life is Short

I haven't been posting much at all recently, because I honestly haven't much felt like it. But an odd thing happened today. I watched a man die. I am not much of a racing fan, but my good friend Anthony is, and we were invited over to his house for dinner tonight. When we arrived, he was watching the Indy car race at Las Vegas with his father in law. It was the last race of the season, and apparently a formality, as the year end title had already been decided.

One moment everybody was zooming along at 200+ miles per hour, and then one guy got bumped and started to slide sideways. Then cars started banging into each other, and some began to spin. Then one car ramped up over another and got airborne. Then there was more crashing and banging, and sparks and flames, and another car got airborne and began to tumble in midair. And there were cars hitting the wall and high up on the fence, and more flames. And little pieces and big pieces of cars everywhere. And smoke. And more flames.

When all was said and done, 15 cars had been involved, and three drivers were in route to the hospital. One by helicopter and two by ambulance. After a delay of well over an hour, they announced that Dan Wheldon, aged 33, husband and father of two young boys, had died of "unsurvivable injuries". As I said, I don't follow racing, so I don't know anything about this man. But one minute, he was at the top of the world doing what he loved to do. And a little while later, he was dead. Purely by chance and as a result of an accident that had little if anything to do with his own driving. Sobering to say the least.