Questions

A man I worked with for more than a dozen years dropped dead this morning.  I don't know why.  He's had a traveling job for a number of years, just like I did.  They found him on the floor next to the treadmill at a hotel far from home.  Why there and not at home?  He had been taking better care of himself than I did in those years, I was rarely in the exercise room at any hotel until the past three years or so.  Oddly enough, given the time zones, I may have been on a treadmill measuring my heart rate as his was giving out on him across the country.  

He was probably ten years younger than I am, but he never got the chance to retire (I remember his toasting my retirement just a few months ago).   Nor did he get the chance to settle down and stay off the airplanes, out of the hotel rooms and drive his own car for even a whole month in its entirety.  Certainly he hadn't done that in the past ten years.  Instead, he was on the go until his last day.  What was all that rushing around for?

He had several children, grown sons I know, graduates of the one or more of the service academies, serving their country even this morning.  As far as I know, he had not yet met a grandchild.  What was the hurry?  A few more years and he could have had those things.

When I think of what I have enjoyed that he will miss, I am at a loss to understand it all.  What do we do with this?  He was a fine man, and deserved the chance to get up tomorrow and watch the rain, hear music, tell a joke, kiss his wife, take a walk, call his sons, offer a kind word to a friend, help a neighbor, write a letter, breathe, laugh and smile.  Why not? We all did today and probably can tomorrow. 

The answer is no closer for me than it was when I sat down to share this, but I have an idea of a few things I will do tomorrow.  So long, Bruce.   God bless you.