terrshee's Diaryland Diary

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The Past Diminishes

Is grief selfish?

I heard last night that a man with whom I have been acquainted for many years is dying. He is a good, decent, generous soul who had much to overcome and overcame it with honesty and a strong will. He will be missed by his friends and deeply loved family.

Even though this does not come to me as a personal loss in the sense that we were close, yet I find I'm feeling very sad. He's one of those people who has been in the background of my life for decades, and always treated me with openhandedness as a friend when we met. I liked and respected him.

Yet it seems selfish to grieve when I saw so little of him. Perhaps it is more the loss of humanity of someone who lived his life as best he could and in his own sphere was a true exemplar of a husband, father and friend. That's worth being sad about. And my past is diminished by his absence.

8:22 a.m. - 2006-03-22
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past tense - always tense - future tense