I Thought He Was Dead

I don't mean to be crude or unfeeling but I was surprised each time one of the Arness brothers died--It had been such a long time since I'd heard anything about them.
It brings to my mind a poem by Mr. John Updike.




Were I to die, no one would say,

“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full

Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes

Will greet my overdue demise;

The wide response will be, I know,

“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,

And death is real, and dark, and huge.

The shock of it will register

Nowhere but where it will occur.

— JOHN UPDIKE



It's going to be that way for most of us. But that doesn't make our lives smaller or of less import.
As you lift yourself through life make sure to lift the people around you too. With kind, instructive words and sincere smiles and pats on their shoulders.
And there's your immortality.