sorry (again) for not leaving time for discussion Sunday. Here’s what I would’ve asked you to comment on. I know your day doesn’t allow for extended reflection and comment (“but, boss, my contemplative musings on life and death can only help my effectiveness in the workplace!“), but any semi-thoughtful insight will do. Two questions:
1. Who’s right?:
o Jonathan Edwards, age 17: 9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death
o or Dr. Gardner Taylor, age 70-something: [having lost his wife in a freak car accident, “As we grow older, this life shows its true qualities of impermanence and unreliability. The young ought not feel that way; they ought to have the illusion of permanence. I don’t think you could live very well without that illusion. As one gets older, God has ordained it so that as one must leave the world, it becomes less attractive.”
2. How do we live between being morbidly occupied with death and totally aloof to it?
The sudden death of my grandmother when I was 19 years old gave me a huge wake up call. I recognized that I too will die and it could occur suddenly. That was a major factor that led me to ask what is there in life besides money and things. A complex spiritual quest began and still continues.