My friends don't believe me, but I have a small ego. Or, if not, I appreciate my own mortality. You could have everything...And it will all be gone due to a brain tumor, a car crashing into you, or a loved one's death. Even if you "make it," you will still die.
When the victorious Roman generals would parade through Rome, a slave would remain behind them, whispering: Memento mori. ("Remember, you will die.") A young lawyer should have studied classical history rather than female anatomy.
Terry J. Record was 29-years old with a red BMW. He was taking shots of hard liquor with strippers. He went to a local bar - the local scene for GOP power players, lap dogs, and cops. Life was good.
Rather than calling a cab, or driving responsibly
Record left Brad's Brass Flamingo ... and ran a red light at Southeastern Avenue and Pleasant Run Parkway. His red BMW, traveling 59 mph in a 35-mph zone, plowed into Jimmy R. Cash’s truck, nearly splitting it in two.
Cash, 46, a father and husband, died at the scene
Record is now a convicted felon and ex-lawyer.
Far from being a victory Roman general, Record was a boot licker and wannabe power player. It would have been nice if he had died. Nevertheless, Record, lacking all appreciation for his own morality - or the existence of others - drove drunk; sped; and ran a red light. Any of those three would have enough to kill someone. That Record pulled a hat trick revealed his trivial nature. Lacking appreciation for his own human fragility, he nearly lost everything.
Any of us, though, could have been Jimmy Cash. Any of us could - at any minute - be murdered by the narcissistic, sociopathic, and trivial. Your mundane drive home could be your death.
Memento mori.
