Thought For The Day #40

Broadcast 10th of February 2015 on BBC Radio Bristol

My thoughts are with the family and friends of those killed in yesterday’s tragic road accident in Bath. I worked in the city for 3 years and I know it will affect the community deeply.

Looking at the pictures of the aftermath on the news I was reminded of the time when one of my best friends died in an accident at a watermill. It was, and perhaps still is, the most intimate I’ve been with the reality of the fate that awaits us all. I simply couldn’t believe that one moment I was chatting to him about everyday things and the next moment he was gone forever. My brain had no way of getting a handle on it.

The pictures on the news seem like everyday kind of scenes. There’s some parked cars, police officers standing around, lights on in the windows of the nearby houses. It’s the kind of sight I might even see once a week or so travelling around Bristol. But the pictures aren’t of an everyday scene. They show the place where people, just like you and I, completed their adventure of life. They woke up yesterday morning with no idea what the day had in store for them.

And so now I can’t help but wonder what today has in store for me? I look at the streets I regularly cycle through in a different way. What if that crossing by the shop I get my bread from is where I take my last breath? Who knows?

I have no answers or easy way of coming to terms with what’s happened. All I know is that life is a tremendously precious and fragile thing. And that I have no doubt the Bath community will shine with strength through these dark and tragic days.