What Is Important?

From time to time, Life has a way of smacking you around and reminding you of a few things. It's good to take some time now and again to appreciate a few things, and to stop and consider what is really important.

I think validated markup is important. I think spell checking a page is important. I'm really a fan of the title="" attribute. Deadlines, certainly, are important. Knowing as much HTML and as much about Dreamweaver as you can is important. But something happened this week that really serves to show how trivial a great deal of our days really are.

Tuesday morning, our Associate Vice Chancellor, Kent Hendrickson, was killed in an auto accident on his way to work. He was in the autumn of his years, as the poets say. But he was in pretty good health—certainly healthier than me. So it wasn't expected, as when someone has a lingering illness. He was here, and then he wasn't. I still have an e-mail in my Inbox from him, from last week. And now he's gone.

Every time I was ever in his presence, Kent spoke to me, usually calling me by name. I have never been in a situation before where my boss's boss's boss's boss even knew my name, but Kent not only made the effort to learn my name, but also what I did for him every week.

I ran into Kent at Wendy's one day, having lunch with another of the staff from Fourth Love. He waited for my wife Kathie to get to the table and settle in, and then laid a little praise on me with a wink. As we were walking to the car after lunch, Kathie said "You know, the only way that could have been any better would have been if your dad could have heard it!" and she was right. Here was a guy whose head was full of budgets and plans and task forces and committees and facilities and all the rest, but he very generously took a moment and shined-up my whole week.

Kent had a great sense of humor and was very approachable. One afternoon on my way to a meeting in the Student Union, I came upon Kent at lunch alone. "What's the matter, Kent? Did you piss everyone off, again?" I asked and then worried that soda might start coming out his nose as he shook his head, laughing. Some people are afraid of their boss's boss's boss's boss. I never was afraid, around Kent.

Look, it's important that we realize that the twenty-first century is going to happen online. It's important that we build the best web sites we can. It's important that we learn to use our languages and our tools as best we can. But there are other things, too.

Maybe take some time this evening. Hug your family. Play with your kids or dog or even your spouse. Think about anything but Web sites for an evening or two. And make sure that how you fill your days is really important. The Web will still be here, tomorrow.