Facing West

Death.   It is the most natural thing in the world, but we never get used to it.  I'm at an age where I have already lost an entire generation of my family.  That was expected -- the old timers go first.

But losing both my father and son in the space of 2 1/2 years wasn't, nor was losing three close friends to cancer, all under 30, in the time between.  I've been awash in death, and it should have become a habit by now, like putting away winter clothes, or that first cup of coffee in the morning.  

Yet every year, I lose someone else.  And it never gets easier...

On the turntable:  Eric Clapton, "From the Cradle"

On the nighttable:  Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution"

On the reel table:  "Reds" (Beatty, 1981)