March 23 was Near Miss Day.

On March 23, 1989, “a 300 meter wide asteroid called 4581 Asclepius flew past the Earth by a distance of about 450,000 miles (684,000 kms) and almost missed striking it by 6 hours. Experts estimate that if the asteroid had hit the Earth, the resulting collision would have released energy equal to about 1000 atom bombs.”

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/near-miss-day

I omitted the exclamation point Time and Date placed at the end of the sentence. Exclamation points legitimately grace such statements as “Holy hotfoot, Batman!” (Check out this website for more exclamations by Robin: https://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceralthouse/the-definitive-ranking-of-robins-exclamations-from-batma)

“You’re the best!” is also appropriate – but only if you spell “you’re” correctly.

Exclamation points are inappropriate in reference to a narrowly avoided apocalypse, IMHO (as the kids say, or used to say – I can’t keep up).

With or without the exclamation point, reading about this holiday got me thinking. How many near-misses, or reprieves, have I had?

How many have you?

Looking back on all the times I almost stepped in front of a moving car, or almost didn’t catch the medical condition on time, or nearly said the thing that ended a treasured friendship, I wonder . . . . It is axiomatic that character is shaped by the trauma in our lives. The current focus on trauma-informed practices rests on the understanding that most of our instinctive reactions were formed in response to trauma. Therefore, we can all communicate and collaborate more effectively if we learn to recognize trauma responses and avoid re-traumatizing others.

TimeandDate.com suggests we celebrate Near Miss Day “by celebrating life and all the second chances you have ever been given.” I applaud that suggestion, but here’s one more: celebrate everything – not just the fact that you missed some traumas, but every experience, the traumatic and the transcendent, the mundane and the glorious.

In other words, celebrate the you you have become, shaped by all your life experiences.

There will always be opportunities to take stock and make improvements, to recognize how trauma has limited you, and how your privileges (and near misses) may have made you blind to the suffering of others who weren’t so lucky.

But just for today, why not celebrate yourself for exactly who you are?

TimeandDate notes that, “According to NASA, there are very few near-Earth objects that have the capacity to hit the Earth and create havoc in the near future.”

“Very few” is not “none.” So who knows what will happen tomorrow?

Better celebrate today, just in case….

Social media image by Ray Hennessey.