Air France June 1st

The afternoon has been filled with looped reports on TV and radio about the disappearance of the Air France passenger jet en route from Brazil to Paris.

It is now feared lost with electrical problems being suspected as the cause (according to the last BBC bulletin I caught). Some 200 plus passengers and crew believed to be lost - their families desperately clinging to the shreds of hope as they wait in the crisis centre of Charles De Gaulle airport, praying for news they rationally know will not be delivered to them.

As someone who flies around 100 times a year, there are many moments where I consider "the odds". Many moments where I "take stock" of my life, the people in it, my wrongdoings and regrets...

Today's tragedy is a sad reminder that life can often be short. But is a short life in itself a tragedy?

Is a short life of comparative happiness better than a long life of comparative misery?

Is the greater tragedy of those that ended their lives so prematurely and suddenly in this air disaster - or is the worse tragedy that of those who survive the dead, who have to live their lives with the dull and constant pain of loss and mourning?

I hope I never have to answer that question for myself or those that I am close to.

What I am sure of is that the brevity of life is surely the most compelling reason to live the most we can. To explore, to love, to risk, to laugh, to travel, to spend as many moments as we can engaged with life.

I have always subscribed to the idea that it is better to regret something you have done than something you haven't... That we heal by moving on, not by sitting still. That we grow with experience not with time.

I hope the flight I am about to board gets me to where I am going. I hope all the flights I am on in the future do the same...

But if one of them doesn't then the next best thing I can hope for is that I lived the most I could.

I pray for those who survive the dead, for their comfort and relief from sorrow.

For those who died, I hope they lived the most they could. Anything else would be a tragedy.