Family Matters
I really wish my father were here. Then I wouldn't have to depend upon my friends (that's you, M.B.) and anonymous readers (that's you, Sean) to pat me on the head and tell me how naive I am. "Taxes are bad because they take money from the people who have earned it and make it impossible for them to start new businesses, hire workers, and generally benefit the economy all around." My father loved this argument when he was talking about trying to get his auto shop to make some (any) money, but for the last fifteen years of his life, he worked for the surgery department in a public university and spent the greater part of his time at the V.A. hospital, being paid by, um, the government. He was also, in his younger days, adamantly opposed to any government-supported health care system; by the time he died, he had revised his thinking on this somewhat. The bureaucracy, waste and corruption of the insurance system had convinced him that the poor--whom he spent the...
Dear F.B., In response to your wondering (and setting aside the grammar of your question) yes and no: Everyone your age (and those a few years your senior, but still virile) does/do think almost 'all the time' about death. A random, unscientific sampling of selected individuals in this age group indicates that the little bandwidth remaining is taken up with a) mortgage payments b) college tuition c) why the Yankees can't win even with a $210M payroll and d) sex. And not necessarily in that order.
ReplyDeleteI see you are in competition with Job as to who has developed the better set of 'friends.' Red Bear's ruminating that your writing would make anyone miserable is, like, way wrong. The ruminations of F.B. are always interesting and thought-provoking, sometimes somber, occasionally poignant, but never misery-inducing.
Glad to know I'm not alone in thinking so much about death. I've wondered whether it was more an effect of age or of my father's dying, although as a writer I also wonder whether it's further exacerbated by the sense of time being so fleeting when there is so much to learn.
ReplyDeleteRe: Red Bear's concern. I'm happy to hear that Fencing Bear is on balance more somber and poignant than misery-producing. My mother and some of my students have commented (privately, not on particular posts) that they find some of FB's ruminations hard to read, but I am convinced that it is as important to write about her (my!) struggles as it is to provide advice.