About Urgency

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If you've worked with me you know that I set deadlines. I learned this at first from an old boss - Jim Roda at Kitsap County Public Works. He taught me "if you don't set a deadline, it won't get done." He was right.

I've gone a little overboard on urgency and deadlines. Nowadays I set them a bit earlier than it might be possible to complete them. Sometimes probably drive people around me a little crazy. 

Here's why.

I have a tumor in my chest. It's the size of a softball, lodged in the middle of my right lung, and adjacent to my heart. It's been radiated - it's not dead, but it's not really growing either. It just sits there.

I feel the tumor with every breath I take. I feel the pain from it pressing against nerves from my shattered rib (where it started) every moment of every day.

Yes, the drugs help. The pain is a tolerable reminder that I won't live forever.

How long do I have? No one knows. Given how fast this one grew, and given the much worse locations that new ones could grow, somewhere between 1 and 30 years.

I won't live forever. Kids, friends, family, any other readers out there, there is a clock ticking in my bone marrow, and I can practically feel the ticking every second.

I hate to say this, but there is a clock of some kind ticking in you too. I'm sorry, truly I am. But this is Truth with a capital T. Your clock may not be as obvious and irritating as mine, but it's there.

So...

If you need to tell someone you love them, tell them today.

If you need to say you're sorry for something, say it today.

If you need to hug someone, hug them today.

If you need to get something done to fix something wrong in the world, and if it's in your power to fix it, or at least start the process of fixing it today, DO IT TODAY.

Enough said.

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