The Inseparable Connections between Your Actions

“That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”

For every action that is made, there is a consequence. Most people view the word consequence as a form of punishment or as a negative outcome caused by a bad choice; however, that is not always the case. Every aspect of our daily lives impacts not only us, but it also effects the lives of everyone around is whether we realize it or not.

In the book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Eddie, who is a maintenance man, encounters five people that he has been connected to somehow during his life. At the time, Eddie may not have realized the effect that these five people had on his life, but he would soon realize that these people impacted Eddie’s life more than he could have ever imagined.

The first person Eddie met in Heaven was Joseph Corvelzchik, the Blue Man. When Eddie was a small boy at the age of seven he acquired a baseball for his birthday. One Sunday morning in July Eddie was tossing the baseball with some of his friends. The ball gets thrown over Eddie’s head and rolls into the street. Eddie runs to grab the ball, and runs in front of an automobile. Eddie, unaware of the car crash that had just taken place because of his ball, continues his Sunday playing with his friends at the arcade. The automobile skids into an alley, then soon collides with a parked truck. The man crawls out of the car with his heart pounding. A policeman finds him and at the hospital a medical examiner pronounces a dead Mr. Joseph Corvelzchik. This is an example of a negative consequence caused by Eddie’s lack of awareness.

The second person Eddie meets in Heaven is the captain whom Eddie served with in the war in the Philippines. “Leave no man behind,” these were the Captains famous words during the war. The Captain always promised that no man would be left behind, and he made sure to keep that promise. Eddie and four other soldiers were taken into captivity by four Philippines. After enduring a nightmare of digging in a coal mine, losing a fellow soldier, and harsh unstable living conditions, Eddie and three of his colleagues escaped captivity and killed the four Pilipino guards. In unison the men agreed to burn the mine. While demolishing the mine, Eddie spotted a small child-like figure run across the burning barn. Nothing could stop Eddie from saving the person in the barn until all of a sudden Eddie experienced a sharp pain shoot through his leg. He had been shot. This injury would forever haunt and torment Eddie for the rest of his life. In Heaven, while recalling this awful and horrific time during the war, the Captain reveals that it was he who shot Eddie. The Captain then explained to the now enraged Eddie that he did it only to save Eddie’s life. If the Captain would not have sacrificed Eddie’s leg, then Eddie would have sacrificed his life to save the person in the burning barn. The Captain kept his one promise to leave no man behind. This act of bravery performed by the Captain shows a negative and a positive consequence because it caused Eddie’s leg to be damaged forever, but it also preserved Eddie’s life.

In the end, I feel that every action has a purpose whether or not the outcome is positive or negative. No random act is made without being connected in some way to another aspect in life.