03.29.06
Life and Death
Life is so tenuous. We have experienced two deaths this week. One of the young men who was shot in Seattle is the son of an old friend. Another friend, L., died the next day of breast cancer. My daughter reminded me today that each year for the past three years we have had a young adult in our family or family of friends die a sudden and tragic death, one of them being my granddaughter’s mother last year. Hopefully that trend will stop now. We are also awaiting the birth of a new soul who will be arriving to very close friends within the month. What an odd thing to be celebrating births and experiencing deaths at the same time, but how appropriate. Years ago I wrote a song about that. Maybe it’s time to pull it out again. One of the hardest things about getting older is having the people around you die. Sure, I’ve experienced deaths throughout my life, but as I get older more of us leave and the inevitability of our own deaths hits a little harder. I think about it from time to time, especially now that I have another sweet one to care for in my older age. My little grandsweetie and I are very close and together all the time. She depends on me to be her mom. Who knows how long I will be able to do that for her. Hopefully a good long time, but there’s always that inevitability. I wonder how many of us think about the connection of birth and death and the necessity of both. I wonder how many of us appreciate our lives while we live them. L. certainly lived her life to its fullest, refusing to give up even when it looked like she was beaten. The fact is, she was never beaten because of her incredibly good attitude all the way through. One thing she did was to write while she went through her battle. What a wonderful gift both to her and to us. It’s late; I’m tired, so maybe more tomorrow…