On people’s passing.

Over the last few weeks while I’ve been otherwise occupied some notable people have departed our mortal coil. In each instance I was inclined to write something to note the person’s passing but, stopped myself. Even the note about Ed Bradley a few weeks back was a slip of sorts.

It’s not that these people won’t be missed or don’t leave behind them something important in the way they affected the world around them. It’s not even so much a superstitious avoidance of the subject of death either. No, I actually saw a few people pass during the last year and so death has certainly reminded me of it’s powerful and inescapable grip.

Rather, I don’t want to spend time focusing on death itself. People die each and every day around us all - if I was so inclined I could probably just have the blog equivalent of an obit column and that isn’t what I want. The other thing is as I find myself at the middle portion of my journey (I hope) through the world, rather than fall into the trap which many do as they age, namely that of spending an inordinate amount of time looking back, glorifying the past, painting it in softer and rosy hues instead of embracing the future with a full heart full of eagerness and hope.

There is no such thing as the ‘Good Old Days.’ Those days are just days filtered through the barriers of memory with all the nasty bumps and scrapes edited out. The best days lie ahead of us and I want to believe they will be even better if we approach them with a hopeful outlook that is both positive and optimistic.