First off, Rest In Peace to Adam Yauch aka MCA of The Beastie Boys. Since 2009 he'd been battling the vicious and indiscriminatory disease that is cancer. He'll never be forgotten as his music and personality and numerous philanthropical ventures will always be remembered and continue to live on. He was 47.
And that's why I'm here typing this right now. I'm here today to say something so simple yet so difficult and often overlooked: Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. Tell them right now. Call them. Send them an email if it's easier. It's the thought that matters. They say it's not what you say but how you say it. Well, that's not entirely true. The truth is, as long as you genuinely mean what you say you're golden. So if you're not gonna mean it, don't even bother saying it. As adults we come to realize that on any given day we can perish. But we tend to forget that from time to time. So we end up taking things for granted. We take our relationships for granted. We take our marriages for granted. We take our lifelong friendships for granted. We even take our children for granted. But here's what I know: I'm 31 years old and in the best shape of my life. 31 seems young enough, right? But think about the millions of people that weren't fortunate enough to make it to 31. Or to 21. Or even to their first birthday. Very sad, right? Stop crying, pussy. Smile and thank whatever God you believe in and take advantage of your time on this Earth. If you don't believe in God thank yourself because obviously you're more powerful than any other human being ever to walk the Earth and you're the only reason you're here today. It's not your parents. It's not their parents. It's not the dinosaurs or the cavemen or anything else that helped you get here today. It's you. You're almighty, Bruce. So thank yourself. And I should thank you, too. But I won't. Because you're stupid. Just kidding. Kind of.
Tangent over. Bottom line: Make a difference. We're all more than capable of doing exactly that. None of us are so weak and unintelligent that we aren't worth the time of day. Time is truly of the essence, folks. It's the most valuable thing you can give someone. Especially a stranger. You can argue that love is more valuable when dealing with family; but love is given through time. If you never see your loved ones, how much love are you really giving them? If you live in a different city or a different state or harder yet, a different country, you have to give them your time in a different way. Seeing them is too costly. You obviously should do everything you can to travel to them or to have them travel to you, but I understand that times are tough all over and it's easier said than done. So give them a ring on the old telephone if like to keep things old school style. Shoot them a text message if you're feeling kinda lazy. Fire off an email right quick if you're a better writer than you are a talker. Or if you wanna show off how much weight you've lost while telling them how much you love them double click on that Skype icon on your desktop and Skype the living shit out of 'em. It'll put a huge smile on their face, I promise. It'll mean the world to them. Imagine how great it would feel if your son just sent you a text saying how much he loves you and how grateful he is that you're his father. If you don't have kids yet, imagine how great it would make you feel if your mother or father or grandpa or uncle sent you a text saying how special you are and how much better their life is because of you. If you can look me in the eyes and honestly say that it wouldn't do shit for your soul to have a loved one tell you these things, go ahead and do the world a favor: Find a bridge and jump off. I mean, don't do that. But honestly man, don't be an idiot. Have a heart. It doesn't make you a pansy. In fact, it makes you more of a man than you currently are if you can learn to tell someone you love them. Improve yourself now. Don't wait till tomorrow. Do it now. Because after all... we're not even promised tomorrow.
I love all of you guys. Everyone that's reading this right now, and everyone I've ever met and spoken to on a personal level: You've all made a difference in my life. Even if you've only had a negative impact on me, I still thank you. The reason being: I turn negatives into positives. In other words, you literally can not fuck with me. So thank you to everyone that's helped me grow as a person. I truly hope I can do the same for you someday.
-- Christopher Lane Johnson
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