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This weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas to watch two of my very dear friends get married. Despite the fact that it was a twelve hour drive, it was well worth it. Still, it was a twelve hour drive, and on a twelve hour drive, your mind is bound to wonder and think about various things. I mean, when you drive through the flat Midwest, there's really nothing to look at, so you have to look at other things in life.

Recently, I've been taking up the role as a family historian. I don't really know why I did it. I mean, I don't place any value in my ancestry. Why does it matter who my ancestors were back then? What matters is who I am now. What value do I gain from knowing about slave owners two hundred years ago who happen to be my forefathers? Despite that, I simply find it fun to research… even though I found out that my great-great-grandparents were first cousins.

As I was travelling on my way from Kansas to North Dakota, I thought about the genealogical records that I was keeping. I thought to myself that I needed to speak with my Great-aunt Tootie about what she knew of the family history. My mother had encouraged me to go over to her house and talk to her. I had fully intended to do it, but time caught up with me, and I had to leave for North Dakota.

Once I arrived back in Grand Forks, I called my parents to let them know that I had safely arrived. That done, my mother broke the news to me: Great-aunt Tootie died earlier the day before. I can't describe the feeling that I felt. It was just so unusual to think that she died the one day that I was thinking about her. I shouldn't feel bad for her because I know where her heart was, and I believe in the resurrection. I shouldn't feel bad, but I have a hard time with the fact that I didn't talk with her while I had the opportunity.

It's a cliché, and I hate clichés, but it's true nonetheless: seize the day. I hear the phrase uttered so much that I stop listening when it's said. That can't be good to do that. Clichés are clichés for a reason: if it's worth saying, it's worth saying again and again. We really do need to make the most of every moment that God has blessed us with on this earth. There's stuff that we do, and there's stuff that we do that matters. I find it odd that I keep wasting my time with the stuff that I do (work, school, etc.) instead of the stuff that matters (friends and family, AIDS activism, music, art).

I was once helping out a friend of mine at his job. This man would be the biggest workaholic that I know, but a piece of advise of his struck a chord with me: “Don't worry too much about your job; I've been working at mine for years, and all it gave me was headaches.”