I Wore A Necktie Today

When I retired, I said that I would only wear a necktie to weddings and funerals.  Today, I went to a funeral, actually a memorial service honoring a young man, 22, who had crammed a lot of living into his life.

Our sanctuary will seat almost 700 people.  Today, even with folding chairs and seating people in the choir's section raising that to over 800, there were probably 50 people standing along the side and rear of the church.  Most were young.  It was a moving ceremony, as much celebration of his life as mourning. 

Most of my readers didn't know him, and so I don't feel comfortable using his name in the blog, but it's important to me to write about it. Any death diminishes us all.  Some deaths are more newsworthy than others, but all are people who have touched others at some time in their lives.  All deaths should receive the honor this young man did.

I watched young men and women cry today, mourning.  For some reason, that stirred me more than the older lady sitting next to us sobbing quietly.  I'm not used to seeing young people cry openly, and it was both a surprise and welcome.

This young man had, quoting his obituary:

... spent the fall of 2007 studying at the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana.
{He} served in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps during the 2005-2006 school year. He participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Gulfport, MS and St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans, where he was made an honorary citizen.
[He} worked as a UNCA Residential Advisor and a Trip Supervisor in the UNCA Outdoors Program. He was a forest firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management in the summer of 2007, and was working on environmentally conscious construction projects this year. He was also a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and a certified Wilderness First Responder.

The large numbers of people gathering on a beautiful spring day to honor his memory, brought me thoughts  this afternoon and evening of my own demise.  I've already had over three times the years this young man had, and though I know my life has touched many both positively and negatively, I'm so glad that obituaries aren't compared in whatever after life there may be.

There's no reason I should be thinking of my own death when, in fact, I very seldom do.  Life is interesting, fun, and sometimes even productive.  I enjoy sitting at this keyboard trying to find words for the blog, I work at the quilting table, read, and enjoy a family that encloses me in love.  Today, however, I have been.  Now that I've put some of it in writing, I will try to do what this young man had obviously been doing, involve myself in living.