Reflection on the transience of life
Like everyone else last week, I was shocked to learn of the death of Gaspard Ulliel, a talented French actor with many hats, at only 37 years old...
And it made me think about the fleetingness of life.
One minute you're there enjoying life.
Enjoying your vacation, going down a ski slope, taking a good breath of fresh air. In front of this magnificent landscape with this carpet of dazzling white snow facing the contrast of the blue sky, which is reflected around you.
All is calm and pleasure, as the other would say.
The next minute you're dead.
It just takes one gesture.
And a basic, innocuous gesture: you spot your friends and you turn aside to join them. And BAM, it's impact. It only takes a minute for your life to change, and turn the life of a little 6-year-old boy upside down in more time than it takes to say it.
This fleeting nature of life frightens me more and more every day, and makes me aware of its precious side, which we can sometimes tend to forget too quickly.
You are happy and then you are no more.
How many times in recent years have we seen influencers die? "stupidly" wanting to take the best selfie from the top of a cliff, a building etc?
In their quest for popularity and the search for ever more adrenaline, they have minimized the dangers at the risk of their lives.
Another example, more personal. This summer, I was traveling in France. In the middle of a road trip with my best friend on the Basque coast, I learned of the death of my sister's brother-in-law. I didn't know him very well after all.
But what shocked me was the fact that I had just seen this person 3 days before, in a corner of a decoration store with my sister.
To think that this person was planning and shopping for a family camping trip a month later that he would never see the light of day, without realizing it, is scary.
It's the game of chance and life. We know that it is what it is. But even though we know that nothing is immutable, that your life can change overnight, that doesn't make this observation any less frightening.
You can lose everything in a minute, a microsecond even, a bad decision, a bad situation, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So at my level, I become more and more aware with each passing day that life is fleeting, and that we must try to do our best to savor every bit of it.
So if we're always here to enjoy it, we might as well do things that make us happy, surrounded by the right people in our lives.
Live your dreams or allow yourself to try to achieve them, give yourself the means to do so.
There is no failure, only learning and lessons to be learned to achieve what we truly aspire to.
And above all, don't forget, life is a party!
