Webbready

This is a rather trite statement to write, but it’s good to be alive.

I have not been near death thankfully, but with all the events going on in the world this week, from the massacres both in Virginia and overseas to the shootings in Pittsburgh itself, it is a reminder that death is not merely a certainty, but an uncertain certainty. Not only will we all die, but we do not know when we will die. I suppose that is for the better, since it would be depressing if we knew too much of our future. Still, when death visits people who are only one or two degrees of separation from me, rather than the five or six that makes us virtual strangers, a nagging feeling in the back of my throat escalates to the point where I momentarily gag from this tangible disturbance. This is not the sadness of losing someone I know, or the sympathy I have for a family who is suffering from loss. This feeling is independent of both emotional reaction and reason.

One could look at this feeling as a moment of facing the impending doom that awaits all of us, but I will try to look at that feeling as a reminder that I am still alive.