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Thirty Years On Today: Burying Oliver Mark Wadey

They say that time heals — I beg to differ. It may cloud and diminish generalities, but on this day, every year, the pain is still the pain that only the gut wrenching sorrow that the loss of a child can bring. True that pain is confined to this day and this day alone and in spite of all my efforts and strategies over the years to cope with it, deal with it, or even try to ignore it altogether, I never quite manage to do so.

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The Dead and the Scared: How Sandy Hook Stood Up to a Gunman

I’m not sure if there’s much more left to to say in the wake of the Sandy Hook killings in Connecticut that hasn’t already been shot to death before — except that it was excellent how, together, teachers and students faced down death that day — while our politicians will never be similarly brave because they are more terrified of the long and ugly shadow of the NRA than they are of dead children.

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Why Google Music was Dead to Me the Day it Debuted Yesterday

I’ve been a Google Music Beta user since the product first arrived six months or so ago.  Yesterday, Google Music lost its “Beta” tag and went live and that’s why this morning — after trying the new service for less than a day — I am un-pinning my Google Music Chrome browser tab and forgetting all about the service.  Google Music is now useless to me.  Google Music is dead to me.

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Steve Jobs and On Being Teachable

A good friend of mine, who happens to be in his late 80’s — or his “Pre-Nineties” as he sometimes fondly proclaims — has been a lifelong educator.  He is responsible for helping form many genius minds.  As he eases into the final stage of his life, he has had to have some physical therapy to help him walk again.  After his most recent round of therapy, his physical therapist told him to tell his doctors that he’s “has better balance now, has more strength now and can walk better now than ever before!”  That was joyous news to my friend, but the biggest compliment was yet to come when his therapist added, “You’re teachable!  You’re almost 90 years old and you’re still teachable!”

What a moment that was for my friend.  After a 60-year teaching career, the teacher was still “teachable” and in the afterglow of having that terrific story shared with me, my mind turned to Steve Jobs who had just died.  Was Steve Jobs teachable?  Or did he think he knew more than his doctors?

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How to Die from Cancer

We all know our days are numbered.  We try to live as best and as right as we can until the instant arrives when we are no longer relatively alive.  Is it better to die without foreknowledge?  Or is it best to have time to put your affairs in order, say your good-byes, and wait for death to take your hand?

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Elizabeth's Last Breath: Ten Sentence Story #105

And so Elizabeth knew the gargoyles had leapt from the top of the Cathedral and come down to earth to take her back into their dark realm because she could smell the wet earth wiggling between their toes.

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Forget Insurance: Start a Healthcare Fund for Your Pet

One sad fact about adopting a pet is that you will likely outlive your beloved animal and that means you will have to pay for their healthcare in their dying days.  When our cat Jack died, 99% of the money we spent for his well-being was used over the last 90 days of his life in an attempt to battle his kidney disease and failing heart and to then provide him the kindest possible end.

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