"Your choice has bearing on
every event that occurs in your life, even those it seems you did not
consciously motivate.”
- Marve Atchison, White Daughter
There's an article circulating on Facebook
right now about a kid named Brian Hoeflinger, an 18 year old who had graduated
high school in Toledo in 2013. He was out with friends partying after
graduation, decided to drive home intoxicated, and got into an accident that,
unfortunately, took his life. His family has since created an organization
called "Brian Matters". It was established to teach kids the dangers
of drunk driving. This particular story struck a chord with me because it reminds
me of an analogy I use in my novel White Daughter to explain how
negative events create positive consequences. In the book, I recount the story
of a little girl who is hit and killed by a drunk driver. Rather than persecute
the man who killed her, the mother of the child decides to institute an
organization to help alcoholics get clean, demonstrating that profound results
can emerge from dire circumstances. Although the details differ slightly here,
the thing I like most about Brian's story is that his parents have chosen to
focus on the fact that his death resulted from choice. They do not shy
away from this truth, which is something that really resonates with me. In
retrospect, death always arrives from choice. We might one day choose to walk
across the street at the exact moment a person runs a red-light, ending up in a
collision that ultimately leads to our demise.
