Keeping Perspective

The last two weeks, the coastal cities of Texas have been ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.  The flooding damage has been unbelievable, as people have lost cars, houses, everything to rising waters.  Streets became impassable, so that many people who were forced to evacuate had to trudge through the waist-high water with only what they could carry on their backs or in their arms.  Knowing that whatever you leave behind could be lost forever, how do you decide what to take and what to leave?  How do you walk away and abandon an entire life that you have been accumulating for years?

I grew up in Houston, so almost my entire family is still there.  Most of them were lucky enough to avoid serious damage, but not all.  Some lost almost everything.  The last couple of days has been people assessing the aftermath and figuring out how they’re going to start over.  What can they save, what can they replace, and what is gone forever.

My wife and I are in the Dallas area, so we had no direct affects from the storm.  Life went on as usual here.  In fact, my week was so busy and my customers so demanding, that I’m ashamed to say that I hardly thought about what was going on five hours south of us.  Until one day, when I had endured one of my customer’s abuse for hours, and I was finally leaving work after a twelve-hour day.  I heard something on the radio about the storm, and it suddenly hit me how heartless my customer was being, and how they were making me into the same thing. 

In the midst of this devastating natural disaster, they acted like their stupid demands and wants were the most important thing in the world.  They had the gall to escalate on me for not turning their petty issues around in an hour, when people were watching their lives wash away in minutes.  And knowing that I was located in Texas, they didn’t even once ask if we were okay or if my family was okay.  They didn’t once think about anything outside themselves and their stupid deadlines.

And it was that wake-up call that made me realize that I had lost focus and perspective on the things that matter most in this life.  Work is not life.  We should not live to work.  We should work to live.  I applaud all of those that stepped up to help their neighbors, the rescue workers that put themselves in harm’s way, and the celebrities that used their influence to raise money to aid those that lost everything.  I applaud them for being better people than I am.  They knew what was important even when I lost sight of it.  People.  Life.