--WHEN I THINK OF YOU YOU’VE STILL GOT ON THAT HAT THAT SAYS “LET’S PARTY”
 

 

…Yesterday another friend of mine died suddenly while gardening.  It was a shock to hear.  He wasn’t necessarily a close friend and I only saw him once or maybe twice a year, but still it was a railroad tie to the gut.

He was the ringleader for our fantasy football league, having started it 40 years ago, back when you’d have to get a newspaper and comb for stats, writing them down with pen and paper.  He loved football and he really loved the column I wrote each week with made up conversations (raunchy ones) between my wife and I.
When I think of him he’s always squinting through a smile.
He has a son and wife with a name I’ve always loved—Sunday.

…So there might be another funeral in my near future.

 

...Funerals do a lot of things.  Aside from honoring the person who’s passed, they tend to make you think about yourself.  You can say they don’t, but you’d be lying.
You assess the crowd and wonder who will show up when you die.
You think about yourself, your life, wondering if it was well-lived, if you grasped the right amount of happiness and for how long.  You wonder about the choices you made, the good ones and poor ones.  You wonder how much life you have left to live.

...Funerals suck and don’t suck. 
They’re a paradox—often it’s the only time you see certain people or talk to people you were once pretty close to.
There are tears, of course, but usually some laughter afterward.

…Ultimately, funerals are a sledgehammer to the head and heart reminding us that all we have are these seconds and minutes, that they’re fleeting, and so it behooves us to use them to the full.

…I am tired of death and I am tired of people I know dying, but I’ve rounded second base now, home plate isn’t that far astride, and so there’ll surely be more on the morrow.

...I'll miss you, Mike.  You were one of the good ones.

 

-“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” Susan Sontag