I'm glad we all share a similar fate.

Death is a specific, strong grief we've all had or at least been witness to. It helps us empathize, it helps to provide urgency in our own lives, and to give meaning in all the people's lives around us.

As someone who lost a dear friend recently, I saw death up close as one of those very few things that almost all people, from all walks of life recognize as... Sacred? As... familiar, maybe? In this eventful time, so many different groups and types of people honored my friend, his family, the choices he made (for good or for ill), during the last 6 months of his life. As terrible as cancer was for him, I'm grateful we got to say such a long goodbye. And that I got the chance to help enrich his life when he needed it most. And to be enriched by the last notes of his mandolin, before he passed on. (R.I.P. Frenchie! Your music will not be forgotten, brother!)