Death

Recently, an acquaintance and fellow parishioner at my church passed away. While the initial shock of his unexpected death startled me, I found that its effect was lingering in my daily life. In the past, I have had to deal with the deaths of close friends and family. When a family member or a friend dies, a void is created within a person. Suddenly, someone who you have shared a great deal of your life with, will no longer be able to be with you on your life journey. This is a terrible feeling that many people, myself included, can never really come to terms with.

The recent passing of this acquaintance is not the same. While I knew him, and would speak with him from time to time, I knew relatively little about his personal life. From the little time I did interact with him, I could see that he was a good human being. He always had a smile on his face, and always had something positive to say. I think the part that really troubles me in an instance like this is that I have to deal with the fact, that I never got to know him, and that I will never have an opportunity to know him further down the road. Often times we get so caught up in our lives that we neglect to realize that everything in this world is temporary and that as much as we will die, so will everyone and everything else. With the chaos on the highways, disease, and the crime and violence in this world, we do not have the time to put off getting to know people...unless we can live with them being eternal strangers.