Life Happens

"Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Low and behold" - Eddie Vedder, Rise

As my birth date quickly approaches I usually get into a funk and become the type of person that my friends can't stand to be around. I was thinking about life's little lessons today and received an email addressed to several of my old classmates. In the email we were informed that a woman from my grammar school had passed away last week. Oddly enough, it seems like she passed in her sleep the day after her birthday.

I hate to say it but this struck me as odd (even though I'd swear I read somewhere that it is fairly common). The mind quickly forms dozens of conspiracy theories over whether or not it was self induced, or if she was ill, or if it was sudden or random. In the end, the truth is none of it matters. Someone a year younger than me is no longer with us.

When you add her up with four guys gone from my graduating grammar school class and who knows how many from high school then the number of fallen rises more. I can only imagine what my 97 year old grandmother feels as those she has co-existed with pass on.

I don't want to give the illusion that I was at any time in my life close to this woman. I knew her and we were always socially polite when we interacted. Her family was friends with a close childhood friend of mine so I was especially polite because of their relationship, but really had no personal relationship with her. Even when she requested I friend her on facebook I wondered why...

The reality of it is many of us will probably never know the circumstances surrounding her death - and maybe they don't really matter. At the end of the day what has struck me at this hour of the morning is that someone younger than I has passed and the realization of how quickly time has passed. The late John Lennon wrote that "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This never seemed so true to me as it does this year.

I expect I'll have more to jot down about how I grew another year (physically as well as mentally and emotionally). But for now, I prepare myself for happy days with friends ahead and a continued good time to come.

Mazel tov!