He was busy. There was work waiting. They had just spent some wonderful family time together, riding bicycles, picking flowers, just having fun in the countryside. Afterwards, Pierre Curie headed back to Paris. He just didn’t know he was heading towards his untimely death.
“Once we got back you wanted to leave,” his wife, Madame Curie, would write in a heartbreaking letter to her husband. “I was very unhappy but I wouldn’t oppose you.” She had stayed with the kids. He had left. “I wanted to give the children one more day in the county. Why was I so misguided? I lived one day less with you.”
But of course, he had been the misguided one. He had cut the trip short. He had rushed back. And when his wife had followed a day later, they had seen each other for one more morning. How had that gone? They had fought. “I was taking care of the children,” she said, “you left, asking me from below if I was coming to the laboratory. I answered you that I had no idea and I begged you not to torment me.”
Hours later, he would be struck by a horse-drawn carriage while crossing the street in Paris. The blow caused Pierre to slip under the wheels of the carriage, crushing his skull and killing him.
In The Daily Dad entry for December 28, we tell the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose life was altered the day he woke up to find polio ravaging his body, movement in his legs, never to return. But we also describe the wonderful day which had preceded it, a full day with family, a day of adventure and fun.
Of course, sometimes we have to cut family time short. But most of the time? It’s not necessity that motivates us. It’s anxiety. It’s busyness. It’s guilt. It’s bad boundaries. It’s screwed up priorities. We rush away from our family. We head in the wrong direction.
Until one day…
P.S. The month of December in The Daily Dad is on Tempus Fugit (time flies) and December in The Daily Stoic is about the theme of Memento Mori. But they are both about the same thing—that none of life is guaranteed, that any of us could leave right now, and we should allow that fact to determine what we say and think and do.
That’s why we created the Tempus Fugit and Memento Mori medallions for you to carry around with you as reminders to be present and not waste the time we do have with our family. Grab yours today!
