Funerals

In the midst of this new year, we are also in the midst of death.

Such it has ever been, and such it ever will be.

But this stinks. Two people I knew at one time — one a classmate and singing partner, one a student — are being buried in the next 30 hours.

I wrote to my friend Ken last week that the relationship with many of my students is transactional (and that is not a bad thing, but is rather a function of the nature of teaching, in that we invest in those in front of us, and often invest deeply and intensely, but then they go on, and a new group of students is in front of us), but some become ‘lifers.’

These lifers are the ones that I continue to see when traveling, who continue to pop into my life from time to time, with whom the deeper connection was forged.

The two being buried this week were not lifers, but an investment is an investment, and shared experiences are shared experiences, and music made together is music immemorial.

And those who are older are not supposed to bury those who are younger.

In this case, this 61-year-old man is mourning a 40-something KU classmate who was light and fun personified, and a 30-something Ball State student.

Others mourn too. May they be consoled by knowing that weeping lasts a nighttime, but joy eventually wins out.

And may the souls of Matt and Josh sing this day with the angels, bathed in glorious light of new life.