Running out of chances...

I saw a sign yesterday that immediately reminded me of Stephen:

"The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them."

I thought about Stephen and how much of a risk-taker he was. How many chances he had in life. All the times he didn't want to live. How many dares he took from his friends. How many things he did to be funny and get a thrill. All the accidents he was in. All the broken bones he had in his lifetime. Even as a kid, Stephen wandered around like he was looking for an injury and he always found one.

Then I thought about the night he died. How that night he had said, "I'm finally happy. I'm finally where I'm supposed to be." He wasn't speeding. He wasn't riding like a daredevil. He wasn't impaired. He was doing everything right. And that's when he died. He quit taking chances, and he ran out of them. How fair is that? How fair is it that all those times he could have died, he didn't? Then when he did die, it wasn't his fault. Hmmm....