By Matthew Brake

In 2011, DC relaunched all of their comics, throwing out decades of backstory (mostly) in order to become accessible to new readers; however, this had the unfortunate side effect of erasing a number of fan favorite “legacy” characters from DC’s stories, one of whom was Wally West, protege of the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, who replaced Barry for a number of decades before Barry was brought back in the late 2000s. With the 2011 reboot, Wally was gone.

But in 2016, DC listened to the fans and began a new initiative, Rebirth, which sought to restore many of the legacy characters that had been missing for five years. The 2011 changes were explained in-universe as someone having messed with time, removing certain characters from existence.

Rebirth began with Wally West, stuck outside of time, trying to reenter the universe and remind his friends of his existence. DC’s four issue Rebirth story follows Wally as he appears to various characters, trying to get them to remember him so he can fully reenter the universe. He almost fails until he appears to Barry Allen, who remembers him and fully restores his existence.

The story is bookended with a quote from a watch that Barry had given Wally. On the watch was inscribed, “Every second is a gift.”

Wally West had become an established character before the 2011 reboot. He had a family, a wife and kids. The Flash books themselves had become home to numerous legacy characters, “the Flash family.” As Wally says in DC Rebirth #1, “For a brief moment…it seemed like everything was perfect. Then it wasn’t.”

Just like that, Wally lost his family, his friends, even his very existence in the world, and the character had a multi-year journey to embark on before he got it all back.

But there is a moment, right before Barry saves him, when Wally resigns himself to disappearing and being lost forever. He comes to terms with life’s impermanence, and even though he is about to lose everything, he thanks Barry for an amazing life before saying, “You were right, Barry…every second was a gift.”

Recently, I’ve been thinking about life’s brevity.

Perhaps that’s because I’m approaching forty, and though that isn’t too old, it does make me think about how about half of my life is statistically over. Even then, there’s no guarantee that I’ll get all of those years.

There is an insight I appreciate from Buddhism that all the things we rely on for life and desire to be permanent can be removed in a flash (no pun intended here). Our health. Our youth. Our very lives. These three things are three of the Four Sights that alerted the young Siddhartha Gautama that life was impermanent.

There have been different moments over the last few weeks when I’ve looked over at my wife and said, “Y’know babe. We have a good life.” But we are both aware that the lives we have aren’t guaranteed. Not only are we aware that our health could change, but my stepson has special needs that have led to surprise visits to the hospital, some of which have come during extremely busy times when we haven’t felt like we could manage it.

Sometimes, as we talk at night, we will ask each other how we will manage if another unforeseen event comes our way. We live with the fear of getting “too comfortable” and being blindsided by a health scare or hospitalization.

Lately, I’ve tried to reiterate that we’ve gotten through it in the past, and we’ll get through it again.

And as for the fear of getting blindsided, I’ve tried to adopt a grateful attitude. I’m grateful that at this time in my life that I have my health and that my wife has hers. I’m grateful for the friends and family that we have. I’m grateful that both of our careers are steady and promising. I’m thankful that some of my stepson’s issues have stabilized. I’m thankful that my two stepdaughters have their lives ahead of them and that they are thriving.

But things can change. Health can fail. Economic upturns can lead to unemployment. Friends and family can pass away. Tomorrow is not promised.

Some traditions, like Buddhism for example, advocate a certain level of “detachment” from life in order to avoid the suffering that comes from wanting these things to remain permanent.

There is a wisdom in knowing that nothing is permanent.

This often leads me to stop and look around at my circumstances and be grateful for the things I have.

This is all captured in the phrase I’ve frequently begun to say to myself and that I took from Rebirth: “Every second is a gift.”

As a Christian, I’m reminded of a verse from Psalm 90, itself a passage admonishing humans to remember the brevity of life. Verse 12 says, “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”

Part of wisdom is being alert that life is short and unpredictable and letting our hearts be grateful for the good times.

Savor them. Appreciate them. Nothing is permanent in this life. But every second is a gift.

Matthew Brake is the founder and editor of Popular Culture and Theology blog. He is also the series editor of the Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture series.