Vagaries of Life

A good friend and a great person passed away unexpectedly – very unexpectedly – a couple of weeks ago. He was so full of life that I still have trouble accepting it. It doesn’t help that he was a decade younger than me (he was only 46) and in approximately the same physical condition; not a Speedo model, but in reasonable shape compared to the general population (or at least the population of males over 45).

Full of life, then not.
Engulfed by grief. Then comes peace.
He lives in our hearts.

(I lived in Japan for 3 years, plus I'm a sensitive SOB. This qualifies me to compose haikus. If you don't like it ESAD.)

Then yesterday I was catching up with a colleague after the between-semesters Christmas break. He’s experienced a similar career path as I have: successful business career, followed by a midlife course correction into higher education. We both have older kids who’ve moved out of the nest and gotten on with their lives (although I have a second set that are now teenagers). We’re both grandparents.

Anyway, the week before Christmas his brother-in-law died, again totally unexpectedly. The BIL was a single parent to two teenage boys. There were no other family members suitable or willing to take the kids, so my colleague and his wife overnight went from empty-nesters to the parents of a couple of grief ravaged and hormone addled teenage males. Talk about a lifestyle change. But God Bless him and his wife for stepping up and doing the right thing. The only other alternative was for the kids to be turned over to the tender mercies of the State of Alabama’s Child Protective Services. No reflection on the good folks there, but that doesn’t seem like a good place for the kids to be right now.

So what can we conclude from all this? Are we subject to the whims of fate – the vagaries of life? Or is there some intelligent design behind this? Some deeper meaning that we can’t hope to fathom? I don’t know, but I’m comforted by the belief that my friend is in a better place, and will be there waiting for us when we arrive. Similarly, my colleague from the university and his wife have scored major karma points, and will reap their reward at some point in the future.

The final consequence of these events is that they’ve encouraged me to think deep, philosophical thoughts about The Meaning of Life. After a lengthy session of pondering the metaphysical I’ve come to the conclusion that the answer lies in another bottle of Shiner…