Musings: Passages

There’s something both terrible and humbling about hearing the news of the passing of one’s contemporaries. People you have known for half a century or more and whose existence somehow seemed beyond mortal limits. Much like the abrupt surprise of any sudden loss, the experience brings you up short, and hard, and feeling breathless.

Of course, I am not the first to experience this as everyone of a certain age is subject to the random vicissitudes of life’s milestones and cycles. It’s just that the pace seems to be increasing exponentially as the end of my seventh decade draws alarmingly near.