SPRING 2008George A. Crispin
Woodbury MM[This article was written early in 2007. It seems especially timely, after a recent flurry of deaths in Salem Quarter, to remember two Friends who died more than a year ago and the friends who miss them—ED.]
There is a quality of our lives that we carry with us constantly and about which we usually give little thought. It is with us when we are born and stays with us throughout our lives. Occasionally it becomes a matter of concern, sometimes acutely so, but for the most part we take it for granted. That quality is time.
Much has been said about time by scholars and sages. One quote has it, “Time is the fire in which we burn.” Benjamin Franklin prods us with, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff from which life is made.” Indeed, there is a book on my shelf entirely devoted to time. Science, since Einstein, has been increasingly interested in the subject, and scientists today generally believe that time is not the constant they once thought it was.
In an old cowboy movie I watched as a child, there was an unforgettable line: “If you have one friend, you are rich.” Most of us have more than one friend. Most of us are rich. Thankfully, I have more than one friend. I am rich in proportion to the friends I have. Two of my friends are very special to me. Two of my friends are dying.
Yes, they are dying. They may not see another Christmas. Their time is quite limited. They know this. They are realists. We even talk about it. They are well past the denial stage. They are courageous. They are more courageous than I might be. Their condition causes me enormous grief. I have known them both for over thirty years. They have been good friends. I give them what comfort I can. But I feel helpless in the face of their condition. I gain some relieving optimism from such thoughts as, “Dying is the last stage of growth in life,” and, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” But their state causes me my own grief. And I know, as well, that their condition will one day be my own.
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