{"id":8591,"date":"2014-04-06T20:19:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T03:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=8591"},"modified":"2014-04-07T06:34:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T13:34:37","slug":"ready-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2014\/04\/06\/ready-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Denny-115\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
Denny<\/em>, my painting from a photo of him somewhere in mid-life. (Click it)<\/a><\/h6>\n

My last Blank Slate<\/em>\u00a0announced the death of my father. I’ve been grateful for all the comments that followed. The memorial service honored him richly. Happily I had prepared a list of his praises some years before and read them at his 70th wedding anniversary. I always think it’s too bad a person can’t hear his own eulogy, so I made sure he knew at least my sentiments back then.<\/p>\n

Though my dad was ready to go and we were ready for him to, tragically we experienced another death right in the midst of it all. Denny was the husband of one of Anne’s closest friends, a man in good health, good spirits and with no warning signs. He went to the hospital for something supposedly minor and never came out. We’re all still in shock; his family, still numb.<\/p>\n

The funeral was on a golf course, on links he’d played just two weeks before. After bagpipes and taps and military honors, a close friend spoke, then each of his three adult children, followed by his wife. Some of his golfing friends said later it was the most meaningful funeral they’d ever experienced, particularly with the remarks from the family.<\/p>\n

At a reception afterward, others were given opportunity to relate some remembrance. Through it all we came to realize how narrow had been our particular perspective of this very expansive man.<\/p>\n

Both funerals illustrated those seemingly stark scriptures, It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting<\/em>, and the day of death is better than the day of birth<\/em>.*<\/p>\n

Both men left legacy. Both lived honorably. Both left family . . . unique human beings that would not be here otherwise. And both modeled an integrity for others to follow.<\/p>\n

But here was a major difference. In the case of my father, at 97, alone, his faculties wearing completely out, he was ready. For Denny it was different. Just 70, a recently retired medical doctor, he had lots of living still in him. Whether he was ready, we don’t know. We know we weren’t.<\/p>\n

Another from Ecclesiastes: Death is the destiny of every man, the living should take this to heart<\/em>.*<\/p>\n

I’ve sometimes thought we should start each day with, \u201cIf this were my last what would I do, what would I not, what would I say, and to whom?\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s not for morbidity; it’s for preparedness.<\/p>\n

After that, have a nice day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

______________________
\n*Ecclesiastes 7:2,1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a topic we rather avoid, but our time will run out, and maybe earlier than we’d like to think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8591"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8622,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions\/8622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}