or, why darkness never completely extinguishes light
It's a common belief that bad things happen to good people. Or that the good die young. But that's not really accurate.
These things are thought because when good people have misfortune or die, others take more notice. Because they were good. The passing of good through the world leaves a wake.
The wife of a social media friend of mine recently passed away after a tenacious battle with pancreatic cancer. If you don't know about that kind of cancer consider yourself lucky. It's a King Kong Bitch of a disease.
Because my friend is a friend through the world wide web and I've never actually met him, I also never met his wife. I only knew her through his occasional mentions. But I could tell much from those scraps.
I could tell she was loved, and loving. I could tell she was smart. And I could tell she shared much of my friend's passions in life.
What I couldn't tell and didn't know was that she was sick, and sick with such a terrible form of cancer.
Just yesterday my friend told his friends at our communal forum that she had passed away. He gave the news in the context of participation in our shared passion of motorcycle racing. You see, his wife was the best of us in the game of predicting who might win, and the finishing order of the runners-up. In fact, she was a whiz at it.
In his telling, he mentioned also what she'd meant to him; how she had supported him in his own racing and moto-interests for decades. How she was strong; a fighter.
He mentioned the hole her passing had created and how he and his family were trying to pull it together and get on with life.
That's a hard ask, even if the grief may be tinged (as it often is in cases of prolonged cancer) with some relief at the ending of a loved one's ordeal. But it's an ask that is answerable, because although good people may leave a gap when they die, their cumulative good effects on others over the years remain undiminished; the benefits reaped from knowing then still vital.
So, a good person's progress through life was stopped by a merciless cancer. But her memory and her goodness will carry on with my friend and his family. In this temporary darkness they now experience the light she bequeathed them will shine and lead the way out.
That's the enduring promise of Love. That it will not be diminished by Loss. And why where there is Love there is never true darkness.
Rest in Peace
It's a common belief that bad things happen to good people. Or that the good die young. But that's not really accurate.
These things are thought because when good people have misfortune or die, others take more notice. Because they were good. The passing of good through the world leaves a wake.
The wife of a social media friend of mine recently passed away after a tenacious battle with pancreatic cancer. If you don't know about that kind of cancer consider yourself lucky. It's a King Kong Bitch of a disease.
Because my friend is a friend through the world wide web and I've never actually met him, I also never met his wife. I only knew her through his occasional mentions. But I could tell much from those scraps.
I could tell she was loved, and loving. I could tell she was smart. And I could tell she shared much of my friend's passions in life.
What I couldn't tell and didn't know was that she was sick, and sick with such a terrible form of cancer.
Just yesterday my friend told his friends at our communal forum that she had passed away. He gave the news in the context of participation in our shared passion of motorcycle racing. You see, his wife was the best of us in the game of predicting who might win, and the finishing order of the runners-up. In fact, she was a whiz at it.
In his telling, he mentioned also what she'd meant to him; how she had supported him in his own racing and moto-interests for decades. How she was strong; a fighter.
He mentioned the hole her passing had created and how he and his family were trying to pull it together and get on with life.
That's a hard ask, even if the grief may be tinged (as it often is in cases of prolonged cancer) with some relief at the ending of a loved one's ordeal. But it's an ask that is answerable, because although good people may leave a gap when they die, their cumulative good effects on others over the years remain undiminished; the benefits reaped from knowing then still vital.
So, a good person's progress through life was stopped by a merciless cancer. But her memory and her goodness will carry on with my friend and his family. In this temporary darkness they now experience the light she bequeathed them will shine and lead the way out.
That's the enduring promise of Love. That it will not be diminished by Loss. And why where there is Love there is never true darkness.
Rest in Peace
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