PQ
Let’s be honest…we DO compare ourselves to our peer group and others, and I might argue that’s not a bad thing.
On Reading Obits
I know. What am I thinking? With all the strife, murder and acts of incomprehensible callousness…I search for something more.
And by golly, it’s right there. Waiting to be discovered, by you and me. Knocking on 60, I’m not exactly looking for my classmates in this part of the paper…yet. Or, will it be they who view me? Folly to contemplate. It’s honestly immaterial.
The value I get from reading about the lives I may have had some oblique brush with (Anthony Compagno from Redwood High School…one of those people I saw on campus, didn’t really interact with too much but knew he was a teacher…), or had no knowledge of at all, is actually refreshing. These people who immigrated, married, worked and have multi faceted stories to tell…so much life to understand. It’s kind of like admitting I don’t know anything and getting to learn the things someone I never knew prioritized in their life, what mattered to them…and then putting my own “high powered”* reflection on that same “life well lived”…and the juicy question: “How am I doing?”
Let’s be honest…we DO compare ourselves to our peer group and others, and I might argue that’s not a bad thing. A rising tide raises all boats, so behavior which all helps us zero in on the correct direction on our personal compass…? Valuable. So to the families: it’s a kind gesture to share one tenth of a micron of “who” they were, to you, to others…it’s a gift and reminder. What do we do with the time we have been given? Sometimes the dead speak to the living, imparting wisdom, and it couldn’t be more beautiful.
Nice to listen.
— Joseph Brooke
*I make fun of my own egocentric place here now…
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