Two days ago, October 25th, was the tenth anniversary of the passing of the professional golfer Payne Stewart. There are certain events that come along which have some kind of impact on us and cause us to remember where we were when they unfolded. For me. the death of Payne Stewart was one of them.
To recap, Payne and his fellow passengers in the private plane they were in died when the plane suffered a sudden loss of cabin pressure. The plane continued to fly on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed in a field in South Dakota.
I, along with many others, were captivated by the news coverage of the plane flying without a pilot and the concerns about where it would land and if the Air Force jets escorting it were going to have to shoot it down so it wouldn’t land in a heavily populated area. Fortunately, it didn’t need to be shot down and deaths were limited to those in the plane.
Leading up to the crash, Payne Stewart was in the news for both his win at the US Open where he sank a winning putt on Father’s Day and turned to Phil Mickelson, whom he had just beaten, and told him how great it was that Phil was going to be a father as his wife was due to give birth any day. It was also a special occasion for Payne who had a history of losing majors in the final round before. Then, two months later, Payne was a member of the US Ryder Cup team that came from behind on the last day to beat the European team and break a US losing streak. During those events, there was some coverage of the transformation that had occurred in his life where he went from being a brash and arrogant pain in the neck for people to a man who was at peace with his life and genuinely cared for other people. This change in him was attributed to his religious faith and the bracelet he wore confirmed this.
I can’t fully explain why but those few months and his death had an impact on me then and continue to do so to this day. In the video clip from his funeral, he says two things that I think about often. First, he talks about having a great grip on life and that he is “in touch”. Remembering this reminds me to do the same no matter how hectic my life becomes. The second part is where he says that we all have something in common in that we have dreams and the thing about dreams is sometimes we get to live them out. I think about this as I push myself and stretch myself to live out my dreams and realize that I am the one who is most responsible for making them come to life.
Are you in touch and do you have a great grip on life? Are there some dreams you have that can be attained and realized with a little extra work? Just a couple of things to think about.
