A Noble Man's Funeral

Looking around at a sea of faces who are not intimated by death, I experienced a funeral like none I have ever attended . I did not know this man well but I would have been so disappointed to have missed it. A group of people where, by far I in my late forty's was one of the younger selves. I felt strangely like I was witnessing a passing of all that has been noble and a generation who knew not only how to survive but who engender what makes a society grand.

There we were reveling and mourning on a life well lived in a room of men and women who had and were finishing so well. I sit by my Dad and Elfrieda who still every day push hard against what they can't do by doing what they can.

I think of me and my peers and the generations following, we don't seem so noble or self sacrificing . We have so little...Gravitas . When these folks were our age they seemed a bit tougher, resilient , positive , creative and enduring . Houses built on stone so when the storm came what they had been building withstood. We seem to be builders of sand sculptures...we can make them fast with gadgets galore in record time. What does it matter the foundation and building material , we are in the moment fulfilling our gifted destiny! Then we rage at the wind and water when storms inevitable overcome.

I felt humbled in that sacred space for I saw unlike other times how insignificant our sand sculptures appear.

This man had built with stone on stone and I was honored to witness his life's celebration.