Tag: truth

Tell Them This?

Alaska's Mighty Mountains Pale
Alaska's Mighty Mountains Pale

Ever heard of K2?

It’s a mountain, in Pakistan.

A really, really tall mountain.

In fact if it were only 779 feet taller, it would be the world’s tallest.

Surpass Mount Everest as world’s tallest? Wow!

If Mount Everest is my faith, K2 is my fear.

Caution, some think gigantic, unwavering Faith leads to the absence of fear.

It doesn’t.

What does this mean to the average person?

It means believing in God and having tremendous Faith doesn’t guarantee us a fear-immunity.

Bob Dylan

“He who’s not busy being born, is busy dying.” — Bob Dylan, folk singer

Lowell, MA March 16, 2010
Lowell, MA March 16, 2010

We Talked About It

Carter 2008 on Sanibel Island
Carter 2008 on Sanibel Island

Are there things in your life that are difficult to talk about? Things that scare you to talk about?

Me too. But not as much lately. Why? Because of things that have happened and the lessons learned.

Namely, becoming a parent. And thinking about the type of parent a child should have, there are a few key concepts that seem all too obvious to practice well.

Being honest.

On our sunset walk the other night, with our Dog, our son and I talked about random things. Clouds. The sky’s color. The cold air. His “winter” clothing. Sounds we heard. Jokes. Junk.

And then for some reason, as we were turning off the road and through the woods to our house, I saw Carter, our yellow Lab (10), come following behind us.

“You know Carter’s not going to live forever, right? All things die. Carter will die some day. You know this right?”

It felt like the right moment to say that, mostly because of a recent conversation with a death expert.

This “death expert” works in Hospice and Palliative Care. She mentioned that her vision would be that everyone in her community would “die well”, not just her company’s “customers”.

It hit me in a weird, but glorious sort of way. Her honesty. Her frankness. Her ease in talking about death.

Eureka!

If we are aware and not too afraid, we can help Carter die well. We should start thinking about it before we need to.

Same goes for humans.