I find myself using the phrase “everything is OK until it’s not” more and more as I get older.

It’s a reference to how you can be going about your daily life without a care in the world and then, out of nowhere, something happens that not only interrupts it, but interrupts it dramatically or at times permanently.

This proposition takes many forms, large and small, and none of them are good.

You could be using your computer at work and it blows up just as you are finishing your last assignment.

You or a loved one are heading home and are involved in an accident. 

You are rolling along without a care in the world and then get a diagnosis during a routine check up you never expected.

You could find out a close friend or loved one has suddenly passed away, and you had just talked to them days before, not knowing it would be the last time.

You could be watching a presidential campaign rally on television, and see the candidate get shot in a very clear attempted political assassination unlike any that has been attempted in at least 40 years.

Think how different, how very different, our country and world would be right now if that attempt to kill President Donald Trump had been successful. The unsuccessful attempt itself has changed everything, but the scale associated with the former president and Republican nominee being killed is beyond comparison.

The Republican National Convention was held this week, and Trump officially accepted the party’s nomination and named his vice presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance.

State Rep. Rey Martinez is a delegate to the RNC and has been at the convention all week. Think about how different his experience would have been if the party was in chaos, trying to find someone to nominate, rather than being able to unify behind the former president as the nominee.

Frankly, Republicans would look a lot like the Democrats, who are scrambling to cut President Joe Biden loose as their presumptive nominee and replace him with a new one. After the debate between Biden and Trump, I said there was no way the Democrats would try and get rid of Biden. Now, reports indicate he could be dropping out of the race before you are reading this.     

Biden is finding out for  himself, everything is OK until it’s not. 

Patrick Graham is proprietor and publisher of The Covington News. His email address is patrick.graham@waltontribune.com