How Do You Want to Be Remembered?

What if the next thing you did was the last thing you ever do?

In 2011, at a San Diego McDonald's, a police officer and former combat Marine who had survived multiple tours serving our country in the Middle East, was gunned down after he exited the restaurant with his purchase.

But before he left, the officer was standing at the counter next to a 13-year-old boy who was 10 cents short for three cookies he wanted.

The police officer asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. "An NBA player," the boy responded. "You gotta work hard for that," said the officer before he bought the young man's cookies, strode out of the building, and stepped into eternity.

Most of us take time for granted. Dying is what someone else does. We're busy. Can't die today.

But if you did die today, would the last thing you did be something for which you'd want to be remembered?

Of all of the lessons we try and teach our kids, one of the most important ones should be to make everything matter. Teach them to make all of the things they do and say be a positive experience for all involved.

Actually, it's something we should all work toward. Leave a situation better than how we found it.

If we treated every moment as if it were our last, imagine the sudden influx of civility and kindness.

I'm guessing that that now 15-year-old young man still thinks about those cookies and the officer's advice.

Maybe one day in the next few years we'll see Davian Tinsley playing in the NBA.

And we'll have Officer Jeremy Henwood to thank for it.