Life, our lives, seem full of chances, firsts, seconds, thirds and even fourths until surprisingly it isn’t.
And yes it is a surprise.
When we were much younger and in a war we dodged bullets left and right.
Nothing hit us until we got shot.
First we felt surprise, then we felt pain. Then a lot more pain that didn’t go away like pain should.
It wasn’t a major wound. And the next day we were pronounced fit to go back on the line.
We did get a bit more cautious for a day or two. But to be honest we were soon back to being stupid because we were young and being stupid is part of being young.
We still volunteered for idiotic patrols because in addition to being shot at on a daily basis, soldiers who did patrol got an extra serving of chocolate milk.
We only got smart when our daughter was born. We held her in the palm of our hand and then returned to the war where we had an epiphany. The extra chocolate milk wasn’t that good. We could live without it and our odds at living were better without it.
We told you that story as a way of admission. We do not expect our three teenagers who miraculously survived that accident last week to stay on the straight and narrow now that they have been given back the greatest gift of all.
Oh for a week maybe a month they might exhibit a little more caution when driving but don’t count on it lasting more than a couple of months at most.
But one day perhaps in 20 or 30 years, they will look back on their lives as they look on their children and give quiet praise that they survived that terrible day and cringe when their son or daughter asks for the keys.
Such is life.
And then there are other second chances.
Anjela Hill and Kody Patten seem to have had more than their share in their short lives.
A tear here and an “I’m so sorry” there seems to have been enough to mollify persons in authority enough in the past.
So they got by.
Until they either killed someone or tried to.
That doesn’t work any more.
the difference between the two second chances is of course the first can be ascribed to luck, kismet or the grace of G0d. The second comes from man.
Men aren’t very good at it.