*In my line of work I am constantly reminded of my own mortality.
Whether its hearing others share stories about something that happened to a loved one, or news articles written or forwarded by me. I don’t take my life for granted. Still, being human I find myself complaining.
…a lot.
It is at those times that I am sometimes conscious enough to step outside of my self indulgence and not only recall the many “close calls” I’ve had in life; incidents where I was in serious danger and could’ve lost my life along with the life of a loved one.
And these are only the incidents I am aware of. Do you know how many times you were protected against dangers you didn’t even know about? I shudder to think. But I do recall the following two.
The 9/11 Terrorist attack in NYC (I left on 9/10):
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
Michael Jackson had just completed a weekend of concerts at Madison Square Garden. His publicist at the time, Bob Jones, had made sure that I got tickets to attend. I had awesome seats where, even in the enormity of the venue, I was literally right across from Michael, his mother, and several young male friends. It was interesting to see how much Michael interacted with his friends; yet how little he interacted with his mother. I could almost read his lips the one time he actually spoke to her — leaning towards her saying something like “Are you OK, mother?” I noticed she nodded her head affirmatively.
I also recall one of the performers on this night was a dreadfully thin Whitney Houston. The singer looked even more frail in the all-fur, sleeveless vest she wore. I recall it was the first time I thought of the cliche, “Houston, we have a problem,” in a whole new light. Apparently I am not the only one who thought so, as any photos of this have been removed from the internet as far as I can tell. The remaining photos show her AFTER she removed the ill-fitting vest.
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