Meet Joe Black

Meet Joe Black -- 17 May 2008

The big news going around the Bank yesterday was about a robbery that took place at the RCBC Branch in Cabuyao, Laguna. The report was that all the employees had been shot and killed. The police are still investigating the crime. They suspect that the employees knew the killer/s which is why no one was spared.

It is really very shocking and quite disturbing. Naturally, I feel bad for the people who died. Surely none of them expected that they wouldn't be going home to their families when they left for work yesterday morning.

Quite by coincidence, I had lunch with a friend and we dropped by the bookstore before heading back to the office. I picked up a book which had piqued my interest the last time I was there. It was the story about Cassie Bernall, a 17-year old girl who was among the thirteen killed during the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado in 20 April 1999.

The book is written by her mother, who recounts the story of her daughter's not-so-perfect life and alleged martyrdom. It is reported that moments before she was shot, one of the boys on that shooting spree had asked her, "Do you believe in God?" and she had answered, "Yes." The boy had asked, "Why?" but did not wait for her answer and just pulled the trigger.


There are speculations that the conversation never happened; but again, the truth still remains, she and twelve other people had gone to school on that day, not knowing it would be their last.

I think about the 9/11 World Trade Center suicide attacks in 2001 and the undersea earthquake that triggered devastating tsunamis in 26 December 2004. I recall the other disasters in the recent news which have taken so many lives -- the China earthquake last Monday and the Myanmar cyclone earlier this month.

All of these incidents involve people. All of these incidents involve death.

Yes, as Joe Black said in the movie, apparently quoting Benjamin Franklin, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

I confess, I am still working on fully conquering my fear of death. It is not as bad as before. Perhaps talking about it and reading odds and ends of books (not necessarily ABOUT death but those which discuss life, relationships, fears, God, etc.) help me along.

We do have to ask ourselves, "What is important in life?"

When I get all worked up, tense and anxious at the office, I have learned to ask myself, "What is the worse thing that can happen?" I know that I could get reprimanded, I may fail, I might even lose face. But what IS the worse thing that can happen? The worse thing that could happen is that I could get fired. (Now I can say, 'Is that all? Hogwash!') I am happy to report that I have (finally) come to realize that my job is not THE most important thing in my life.

(And I thank ALL the people who have helped me get to this state of being. It surely is a much better place.)

I bought a puzzle (several years back) of the New York skyline which still had the Twin Towers on it. I completed that puzzle to serve as a reminder for me that anybody's life, including my own, could end in an instant.

I guess I need that constant reminder to be prepared and to live each day as if it were your last.