A Life Lesson Learned From A TV Horror Series

Sometimes, you learn from an unlikely source what you later consider an important life lesson.

 

That unlikely source can be a person, a book, or even an experience someplace. In my case, I learned that lesson from — of all sources — a TV horror series.

 

Before I reveal that important life lesson, however, let me share a few things about that TV show. The show is called Friday the 13th, the series.

 

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(No, not about that tall guy with a hockey mask and a machete.)

 

Friday the 13th, the series is about three people on a quest to retrieve “cursed” antiques and lock them away for good. These antiques grant certain powers to their users, but only after being used to kill other people. In many episodes of the series, these users later become victims of those items.

 

One episode features an antique jack-in-the-box that a dad gifts his young girl before his murder. The girl later discovers that the box, upon using it to kill someone, lets her see and communicate with her dad’s spirit.

 

Alas, the girl uses the box a couple of times after.

 

At some point in the episode, the girl’s dad tells her to get rid of the box (after maybe realizing what it does). However, she justifies using it by saying she misses him and doesn’t feel her mom’s love. She and her mom, during that time, argue a lot.

 

The girl complains to her dad that his having died is not fair. He responds that everyone dies.

 

Then, he adds: 

 

That’s why you have to make the most of the time you have with mom.

 

Little did I know that that line will stick to me afterwards.

 

(The episode is online somewhere if you really want to see it. Just search for something like “Friday the 13th episode jack in the box”.)

 

Why the line of that episode stuck to me, I didn’t know back then.

 

 The Lesson That I Learned

 

Only through time, particularly when my mom died when I was 15, did I know — and then learn an important lesson from that episode.

 

The lesson?

 

You make the most of the time you have.

 

Because let’s face it: life isn’t always fair. At least, life won’t always turn out the way we expect of it.

 

I certainly didn’t expect my mom to go so soon. Then again, neither did anyone as far as I know.

 

(As an aside, Dad would later tell me that he and mom learned she only had a few years to live. He said mom’s doctor gave her about 12 years at most. As things turned out, she lived for 15.)

 

Essentially, mom made the most of her remaining time with everyone. Me, dad, my siblings, everyone all of us knew.

 

I can’t thank her enough for all the time she spent with us.

 

No question that all of us will go someday. In that case, we better make the most of our time in this world.

 

Perhaps make the most of that time to try something we’ve always wanted to.

 

Maybe make the most of that time to resolve whatever issues or settle whatever differences we have with others. Granted, neither of those is necessarily easy.

 

I honestly don’t know if I’ll able to do any, all that, or more.

 

Still, I’ll give those a shot. And then some. And then some more, especially when it helps somebody.

 

After all, you only live once. Or YOLO as some youngsters say (though within reason, please).

 

How I, you, or anyone else will live that life is up to each of us. Make it good, and make the best and most of it.

 

Kinda funny that a TV horror series would essentially teach me some lesson about life. That’s life, I suppose.

 

Trusting this helps.

 

      Credit: Tov Mauzer

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