Life Is Tenuous

Sometimes we forget just how tenuous life can be. Most of us expect to live to a ripe old age and don't really consider the possibility that it might not happen. But life is not fair and is no respecter of persons. It can end in a heartbeat. This odd story brings that fact home.

Taylor Mitchell was a young Canadian folk singer with a bright future ahead of her. Although she had just turned nineteen, she had already been nominated for a Canadian folk music award and her career seemed to be taking off. All of that ended with a walk through a national park.

Mitchell was taking a solitary walk through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia when she was attacked by a pair of coyotes. Other visitors heard her screams and notified park rangers. Rangers said the coyotes were "extremely agressive" and they shot and killed one of them. They are still hunting for the other.

It is extremely rare for coyotes to attack a human. I grew up in the country listening to the night howling of coyotes, but it was rare to even see one. They are afraid of humans and will usually run away before a human can even get close to them. They live by killing small animals like rabbits or scavenging on the leftovers from other animals' kills (or roadkill).

But in spite of the extreme rarity, the attack happened. The young singer was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax where she died on Wednesday. In an instant, a young life and possibly brilliant career were over.

This should serve as an example to us all. Maybe we will live to be cranky old men and women. And maybe it will end tomorrow. No one knows.