The Last Hour Of My Life

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. - Charles Darwin

Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments. - Rose Kennedy

Twice this week I have been asked to recount four airplane “events” I have survived in my many years of travel and after I shared the stories for the second time, something stood out that made me pause and reflect about how we spend the most valuable gift we have been blessed with – our time on this Earth.

Some years ago while returning from a business trip, I had an opportunity to experience some of the worst air turbulence in my 40+ years of travelling.  In the violent pitching and rolling that occurred, I suddenly felt a “bang” in the floor and for a moment I thought that we had popped a baggage compartment door and were spilling luggage all over the east coast.

The plane suddenly pitched up and after we had climbed above the turbulence, the pilot announced that he needed to speak to ops (flight operations) and that he would get back to us soon.  I thought “Ops?  That’s interesting.  That means we have a problem.”

For an hour we flew in a wide circle with no updates of any kind.  The pilot eventually came on the intercom and told us that we would be returning from whence we came and that we were to follow all instructions of the cabin staff.

We were taught the brace position required for emergency landings and then were left with our own thoughts for what could be the last hour of our lives.  A lady behind me was saying her Rosary, a few people were crying, some people were talking quietly and I, in typical fashion of always acting in a manner contrary to worrisome circumstances, was intent on finishing a book that I was rereading – The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.

The lady sitting next to me asked me “How can you read a book at a time like this?”

My reply was basically along the lines of “I have two options, both completely out of my control.  I might hit the ground at 500 miles per hour, becoming a grease spot on the runway but feeling no pain as I am killed instantly.  If that happens, my insurance is paid up, my family will be taken care of and I will be remembered as the only person in my family to have been killed in a plane crash.  How cool is that?  My other option is that I will walk away from this totally unscathed and I will have an awesome story to tell.  So given that both options are out of my control and I know what all possible outcomes are, I have nothing else to do but read my book”.

With a mix of anger and incredulity, she told me I was crazy.

About an hour later, as I turned the last page of my book, an announcement came over the intercom that we were approaching our destination and that we were to start preparing for arrival by placing our personal effects, including shirt pocket contents, eye glasses and such in the seat pocket in front of us.

As the ground got closer, I quietly said my thank-you’s to everyone and no one in particular, asked for forgiveness for the mistakes I had made in my Life and when the call came for us to brace for impact, we all leaned forward and prepared to die.

Spoiler alert

After we had landed safely and the applause and yells from passengers had subsided, I turned to the lady sitting next to me and said “In the last hour of my Life, I finished a great book.  What did you do?”

She didn’t reply.

In a subsequent conversation with the pilot, I learned two things:

• At the moment that the “bang” had occurred, we had experienced a structural integrity compromise (translation: something broke) and the airworthiness of the aircraft was unknown until we had safely touched down.
• The pilot, who had been flying for more than 25 years, said that this event was in the top 3 scariest events of his Life.

When a pilot with that much experience and who isn’t bothered by things that bother passengers says this, that’s when you want to go back to the lavatory and throw up.

The Bottom Line

During this flight, I was given a warning by the flight crew that the last hour of my Life had potentially been identified and that it was now.

But in Life we don’t always get such warnings and in that realization, I wonder how we would live our personal, relational and professional lives if we believed that the next hour was to be our last, regardless of whether we were given a warning or not.

Most of us don’t live as if the next hour is our last.

I wonder what would happen to us individually and societally if we did.

What do you think?

Do you recognize the value of your time, especially given that you have a finite amount of it, once it is spent it cannot be reclaimed and you have no idea how much of it is remaining?

Are you sure?

Are your actions in congruence with your beliefs?

How do you know?

In service and servanthood.

Harry

PS – The Importance of Gratitude

All the passengers went back to the airline counter to rebook seats necessary to carry us to our original destination and I couldn’t help but notice the guys in front of me giving the lady at the counter a hard time about the impact of the delay on them, how airline staff didn’t know how to run an airline, etc.

When it was my turn, I expressed to the lady how grateful I was to be speaking to her and how I thought the airline’s maintenance program, training regimen and professionalism were the difference between me living and dying.

She thanked me, pointed to the guys that I had been observing and said “See those guys over there?  I have them on standby for tomorrow.  However, I’ve got an executive class seat for you on the next flight and here’s $75 “airport dollars” that you can spend anywhere in the airport for meals, souvenirs or anything else you need.”

Her actions remind me that kindness pays … especially when unexpected or when it seems most difficult to express.

Someone is waiting for your kindness in an unexpected way today.

What are you waiting for?

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Addendum - February 9, 2017

I was reminded today that I have had five close calls (not four).  They include a cabin depressurization, a near mid-air collision on final, the structural integrity compromise noted in this post and two RPM governance failures on take-off.  In the latter, I've often considered them as one event because it occurred twice with the same aircraft on the same day.  Sound complicated?  On a flight some years ago, we experienced an RPM governance failure (which was explained to me later) on take-off that almost caused us to drop into the forest as we cleared the runway.  We made an emergency landing at an airport along the way, boarded a different aircraft and then proceeded to my original half-way point destination.  We waited for the aircraft that would take us to the final destination and when it arrived, I realized that I was seated in the same seat as on the original flight.  I knew this because I had noted when my journey began that someone had carved their name into the window shade and as I sat in my seat, I saw the name on the window shade again.  The airline in question had assumed that the aircraft issues had been addressed and had ferried the aircraft in to pick us up and take us to our final destination.  The assumption that the aircraft has been repaired turned out to be incorrect and we once again had an RPM governance device failure on take-off.  The resulting take-off, while completely successful with a dramatic acceleration, deceleration, acceleration (we were committed) finished with an equally interesting landing since the standard procedure for landing an aircraft with a failed RPM governance device is to land at full throttle.  It made for an interesting day.

For those who like to know technical stuff, the RPM governance device senses shaft RPM, and adjusts or controls the angle of the blades to vary the torque load on the engine. Thus as the aircraft speeds up (as in a dive) or slows (in climb) the RPM is held constant.  When this device fails, it is difficult to control the thrust of the engine (and thus speed of the aircraft) and so it is better to land at full throttle rather than risk diminishing the throttle and causing the engine to produce less power than desired.

Let’s Trade Lives–Yours is Better

I ran into someone recently whom I don’t know but who knew quite a bit about my Life.  At one point in the conversation, he said “Your life is so cool. I would love to live the Life you have”.

In thinking about this comment, I can somewhat see what he based this observation on.

After all, my early years were spent growing up in this house in Newfoundland ….

and my career eventually evolved into an award-winning one in New York where I got to associate with people like Bill Gates and others (I’m on the right, Bill is on the left, in the photo below) …..

I survived 4 muggings in NYC, having an up-to-now 4-0 record.

I walked away from 4 airplane incidents that some pilots have rated as the most terrifying moments in their career.

I was blessed to co-found a successful company in NYC with some of the most brilliant people on the planet.

I have a bazillion stories that make people laugh and cry.

Yup – my Life has been perfect.  I can see why he would want to live my Life.  Who wouldn’t?

Well … not exactly ….

He is basing his desire to live a Life like mine based on the rewards that he sees.

He doesn’t see the difficulty (as well as the blessings) in growing up in a poorer part of the country and feeling, as a kid, not as worthy as the wealthy crowd.

He doesn’t feel the terror when confronted with imminent death, either at the hands of a mugger or contained within an aircraft that is destined to splatter us all on a runway.

He is not feeling the anguish at 2 in the morning when one is wondering how to make the payroll for all the staff (and their families) relying on him as the company attempts to make the transition from inception to sustainability.

He doesn’t feel the guilt of knowing that one of his teammates died in the World Trade Center as a result of an action he did or didn’t take.

He hasn’t experienced the pain in the gut one feels when terminating the employment of an individual who tells you, while you are firing him, that he just discovered this morning that he and his wife are about to experience their first child.

He hasn’t experienced the difficulty of balancing success with personal relationships.

He doesn’t experience the burden that I carry as a result of being exposed to confidential information that can’t be shared that conflicts with my own personal values and my concerns for the planet.

He’s not seeing the times when I have been taken to the edge spiritually, emotionally, physically or financially.

He just sees the glory.

The truth is that everyone’s lives are a mix of triumph and disaster, glory and struggle, terrifying moments and immense rewards.

And while he compares his Life to mine and compares the mundane stuff that he perceives in his own Life versus the rewards he perceives in mine, he has blinded himself to the great stories that he has in his own Life and the complexities that I have in mine.

He’s not comparing the whole package, either his Life in its entirety or mine in its entirety.

And there’s a great flaw in this method of comparison.

As is noted in the Desiderata:

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Personally, I see my Life as a series of blessings that I am grateful for every day … the good parts of it as well as the difficult ones.  I wouldn’t trade any of it nor could I easily recommend it to others - not all of it is for the weak-minded or the faint of heart.

And so, before we so quickly aspire to live someone else’s Life, we should ask ourselves three questions:

1. How much do we really know of the unknown side of the person whose success we marvel at and what they have experienced in their Life besides just “the good stuff”?

2. Are we truly ready and prepared to endure what it takes to harvest the rewards that the other person appears to have?

And most importantly ….

3. Should we not examine our own lives first and recognize that our individual stories of Life’s tribulations and rewards are as amazing as anyone’s?

While we may marvel at the story of someone else’s Life, someone is marvelling at ours.

And that’s a cool story worth wanting, living and sharing.

In service and servanthood,

Harry