Blog 2491 – 08.20.2022

“Another One Bites The Dust”

It is a cowboy expression for noting the passage of a fellow traveler whose trail ride is over. It does seem, the longer that my ride lasts that the trail gets dustier and dustier as more friends and family have ridden off into the sunset ahead of me, so to speak. The poet John Donne wrote, “Each man’s (the inclusive term) death diminishes me.” But I like to think the reverse is more accurate, that each person’s life adds to the whole and that each of us who linger carry a part all we have known and loved along with us.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is a familiar expression used in many funeral services. Long time daytime TV host, Art Linkletter, wrote a book called Children Say The Darnedest Things. One of those children who had heard that express was caught climbing out from under her parents’ bed and asked what she saw under there. She replied, “It was pretty dark, but it looked like someone was either coming or going.”

That seems to be life in a nutshell, someone is always coming or going. Jesus once pointed out that he thought most of us get it backwards, we rejoice when someone is born and mourn when they die. I guess it is a matter of perspective. When dust gets in our eyes, or smoke for that matter it can make us cry and make seeing things clearly hard for a bit. Coming and going can both be causes for celebration, beginnings, endings, and all that is in between too, if seen through eyes washed clean by tears and full of love, hope, and understanding.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eQcPfEXaeSYaMYju8Ck5Lfewcc63sCvE/view?usp=drivesdk

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes