Thoughts for the Day

This is difficult to write because it walks the line of very sensitive. Let me assure you that it is a peek into how I feel and not intended to be a critique of others but to clarify my feelings of a headline.

After 88 years of a very happy life, my mother gave in to death this past month. I am not sure the exact cause of her demise, mostly old age and a bum ticker. It was her belief that she gave in to death for a life there after. With mom, it is not how she died, but how she lived. She, "Went gently into that good night."

It is about the people that die in the performance of their job that I write. This is highlighted by the death of a fireman in Kansas City over the weekend that I comment. People write that in the performance of their duty they gave their life. I think this is the wrong idea. I'll bet that in most cases, the soldier, policeman or fireman had their life ripped away from them by the circumstances of the event. In the event of war, it is an armed combatant that kills the service member. There is no giving, only taking of a life. In the case of the fireman, something inside the house killed that poor man. How can I say that gingerly, we need to think about proud men and women being killed not giving their lives. I know I am not politically correct, but I stand beside the proud warriors against death.

Some day, in a bunch of years from now, I will give my life to death sitting on a couch somewhere watching TV. Until now, anytime Death came knocking I fought as hard as I could to stay alive and death was challenged to the best of my ability. That is how I see the event of death. It is an all out battle to stay alive and sometimes good people are killed.

MUD