The Parting Glass, The Passing of Richard Laue

 Sunday August 15th, Year 3 of the Virus

Sunday, August 7th, Year 3

Sunday Meditation

The Parting Glass

"...But since it calls unto my lot

That I should rise and you should not

I'll gently rise and I'll softly call

Goodnight and joy be with you all"

(Ed Sheeran)

Our family moved away from Chicago when I was just a little kid, and being the introvert that I am, I never developed the strong family ties to my extended family that still resides in that area.  I was just too young and had very few memories to build upon.  They are all good people and over the last few years I have begun to reach out to a number of them.

One of these relatives is a cousin, maybe 83 years old, 14 years my elder, who has meant a lot to me over the course of my life.  When he came to visit he always seemed glad to see me, he seemed genuinely interested in what was going on in my life.  We have a lot in common, a love of nature, a love of solitude, a contemplative's state of mind, a sense of seeing the miraculous that surrounds us, to name a few.  He is quiet, easy going, yet still knows how to have a good time in good ways.

Many of the stories he shared with me were of his extended canoe fishing trips deep into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota.  He talked of the flight of the geese, of moose, otter, muskies, sunsets and solitude.  I don't know if he is a sensitive soul or an Old Soul, maybe he's both.  He often marks time of an event the old fashion way, "...the ducks were already heading south for the winter when...", "...the Kankakee was still flooded from the spring rains when...".  I like that, there's no argument about Chicago Time or Eastern Time or Daylight Savings Time, there's just Time and its tie to the seasons.

He's a natural contemplative, always thinking, pondering, meditating on the motives of mankind, and the will of God.  He set an example for me, in that it was ok to say, "I just don't know..." to some of the harder questions we face.  It wasn't ignorance from the lack of study that led him to that conclusion, quite the opposite, it was because he HAD given it his attention and still could not provide a definite judgment, that the only truthful answer he could give, was, "I-don't-know."

One who sees the world through those contemplative eyes adopts a worldview that, "It is what it is" and it needs to be dealt with that in mind.  There's no point in denying anything or coloring an issue, because in the end, "It is what it is".  Aging is one of those issues.  Nothing stops it, including not thinking about it.  Both he and I have won the Progressive Disease Lotto, he with cancer and me with PD, his fast, mine slow.  When he and I were alone, maybe we talked little of it, a "How's it going for you?" was sufficient, as we both know, "It is what it is".

Recently my emails to him went unanswered, and yesterday, my cousin Deb, notified my sister Linda, that Richard was very likely to die soon.  My siblings, Linda, Bill and John drove to Kankakee yesterday. A late night text from Linda indicated he was in and out of consciousness and very weak.  Sue and I leave in about an hour in hopes of saying our final good bye before its too late.  

I'll mark the time of his passing as, "The peak of sweetcorn season" and I know he would approve of that.

bobb

Post script; Rich died about 36 hours after our visit and to the day of the peak of our  sweetcorn harvest.