1975 Paladins

A Paladin Looks at 50

I just had my 49th birthday, like most of you will be having this year, if you have not already. So, this is my 50th year of life on this earth, and every day is another day closer to the end of that life. I am one of those really weird people who are not afraid of death. Most normal people are - and rightly so - because it is normal to have a fear of the unknown. Part of my lack of fear can be attributed to my faith, certainly, but I have pretty much always felt the same way even before I had such a strong faith. I was fortunate in some ways to have been untouched by death until I was pretty old. I never even attended a funeral until I was 35! And I was closer to 40 before I went to the funeral of someone I had actually known. When my father died two years ago, it was the first time that I had experienced someone close to me dying, but I still feel the same way. As the years go by and we continue to lose more and more of our family, friends and classmates to death I hope we can all trust that this ultimate unknown will be an everlasting peace like nothing we can even imagine right now. And if there is suffering prior to death - our own or a loved one - I pray that we might somehow be able to grasp the redemptive value of that suffering and reach beyond it. It's all good - no matter how it looks on the surface - it's all good.

posted by Cindy HORNBURG Zimmerman @ 6:51 PM