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Before you cross the street take my hand.
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
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I was at funeral recently and one of the speakers read a passage
from Ecclesiastes 3. You know the
one that goes,
“There
is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
·
a time to be born and a time to die,
·
a time to plant and a time to
uproot,
·
a time to kill and a time to heal,
·
a time to tear down and a time to
build,
·
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
·
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
·
a time to scatter stones and a time
to gather them,
·
a time to embrace and a time to
refrain from embracing,
·
a time to search and a time to give
up,
·
a time to keep and a time to throw
away,
·
a time to tear and a time to mend,
·
a time to be silent and a time to
speak,
·
a time to love and a time to hate,
·
a time for war and a time for peace.”
After the speaker read those words, he said, “But
we do not really get to choose the times.”
The speaker was getting ready to make a point about the person whose life
we were celebrating at the funeral, but my mind wandered and I began to
think how right that concept was. Then
my thoughts went to something I had heard many times in my life -- “Life is
what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
This saying was attributed to famous cartoonist Allen
Saunders in an article published by Reader’s Digest in January 1957 in a
section called “Quotable Quotes.”
Later, John Lennon composed a song containing a version of
this thought and released it in 1980. I believe the song was called “Beautiful
Boy”. Mr. Lennon wrote these lyrics
about his experiences with his son Sean.
"Before you cross the street take my hand. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy
making other plans."
We busily go about making plans that go somewhat like: I am going to do this soon, then I am going
to do that later, then I will move on to something else even later on. These are good plans, but in real life
things tend to proceed differently. The trouble is most of us don’t realize this except in
retrospect and then life has already happened.
The person whose funeral I was at died an
unexpected and untimely death. I
estimate that there were 1600 to 1800 people at the funeral. Each of us considered ourselves one of his
10,000 closest friends. But none of us chose
this time to mourn which was brought on by his death.
It happened while we were making other plans.
Sometimes things in our lives go per plan, but
more often than not they do not. It is
highly likely that life will push us toward an outcome different than what we
planned. Maybe that is what makes life an adventure, even in retirement.
