The Grim, Deeper: Ripples

A good man has passed.

He has walked the lonesome valley and passed beyond this vale of tears to that final mystery that awaits us all.

We were not close, he and I, but our circles overlap greatly.  Some of the closest people in my life were close to him.  I see their tears, I hear their laughter, I feel their sobs when I hold them close.  In their stories and their sorrow I bear witness to a life well lived.  I am moved by these ripples emanating out from his unique impact on the universe.  It is sad.  It is pain.  That deep kind of pain that never quite heals.  I have felt it twice in these past five years and I do not envy their suffering now.  Yet it is also beautiful.  To experience this bitter gloom they must first have basked in his special light.  And what a gift that was.

In my experience he was a quiet man, a kind man, a simple man in the best possible way, and a wonderfully quirky man.  Never a father himself but an uncle to all.  He had a passion for wine, photography, hummingbirds, and, strangely, battery technology.  It was that last one in particular that I felt made him all the more charming.  He was a common man yet absolutely one of a kind.

He was not a young man and his health had been deteriorating for some time now.  Time that allowed him to reflect, contemplate and make peace with those he left behind.  I am told that he passed on with just a single regret, that he never got to take his wife to Yosemite as they had always planned.  We should all be so lucky when our time arrives to have our ledger so close to clean.

His goodness I see expressed through those who loved him.  A goodness that they will carry with them to inspire in others.  A ripple eventually forgotten but never erased.

No matter how humble a life is never insignificant.

Love to you my friends.

Grim