It is with a heavy heart that I write. After a day of work, I walked over to check in with a colleague. She was in tears and proceeded to tell me, she had just received a call, moments ago, that her niece’s husband was killed in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I listened as she told me she had just visited with her niece’s husband, her niece and their baby during the Christmas holiday. She said, “Nat, I don’t want to question God, but I don’t understand. Why now? They had just gotten to a solid place in their relationship, the baby…..the baby.” And she began to cry.

I was forced to remember a sermon by a minister, who said, “Life is like a vapor.” He took a match, lite it, and then blew it out. The church fell silent as we watched the smoke vapors thin out into the air.

It is said so often, we take life for granted. We do. We forget every time we run to an appointment, rush to work, run for the train, that we are really rushing to die.

We go through life taking our relationships for granted, believing we have another day to fix it and make it better. “Life is like a vapor.”

We are too proud, envious, greedy, jealous, selfish, haters, takers, fighters, killers (there is more than one way to kill) fakers, self centric—all the things we can change to improve our lives, but we believe we have another day. “Life is like a vapor.”

We make enemies, turn our backs on a loyal friend, take each other for granted, use one another, don’t love, and sure as hell don’t care! Thinking we have another day to fix it. “Life is like a …..”

We must make it a mandate to live! Love! Talk! Give! Sex! Remove the barriers that make some folk homeless. Go home! Somebody on this earth loves you. Make it right. Throw the pride in the street and you go home! “Life is like …..”

We live in a hard and cruel world. Our only choice is to make it. There are no other options. Live together! Combine the rent/mortgage. Combine the income. Combine the love. Come together like companies do. They merge to be one gigantuous force of power in their industry of expertise. Unless you are a man who owns an island—no man is an island. We need to follow the lead of the leading companies. Companies say, “..crush the competition.” We can crush the economy! Merge! Join Forces! Double the dollars! Because, “Life is like a vapor.”