Some Shoes to Fill, In Life and Death

We live in a violent world with violent people in a violent time. The result of that violence is sometimes death. This evening as I was leaving work I felt a vibration that made me stop in my tracks. It was my cell phone and the number displayed was that of one of my closest friends. I thought he was calling to share good news, or just some news, about a meeting he was to attend. Instead he shared the shocking news of yet another tragic death.

The details are yet still unclear of how or why someone chose to take her life. I find some of those details rather unimportant. I don't care so much about why it happened or how it happened but more simply that it happened at all. It shouldn't have happened. It should not have happened to her. It shouldn't have happened to a brother in Brooklyn. It shouldn't have happened. Death at the hands of another man should not happen.

I am reminded of a song from my days in the church youth choir, "you know not the day - when the Lord shall call your soul away."

Recent deaths have not only made me stop to reflect on mans inhumanity to man, they've also brought forth the very real question of how am I spending my time here on Earth now. If I died today what would I be able to say about and for myself? The past few months I've been moving closer to being more concerned not about how I make my living but how I make my life. When transition time comes for me I want to be in the shoes of my grandfather who always tells me that if he were to die today he would feel comfortable knowing he has done everything in life he wanted to do and had a great time doing it. What a pair of pleasure those must be to wear.