relevance

 Another very famous person has left us. Loretta Lynn, the coal miner's daughter has gone to her final rest at the age of ninety. Goodbye Loretta, rest in peace. It isn't something that has a great effect upon me personally, I didn't know her personally, but it is a reminder. All too often I find myself saying goodbye these days. It just hits a bit harder when it is one of the "immortals" I'm saying goodbye to. I recall when Merle Haggard left us, and Johnny Cash. Seemed like those boys would be around forever. It's nothing personal, but it's personal.

 In the coming days and weeks there will be tributes galore. Loretta will be remembered and spoken about with reverence. By years end though barely a word will be spoken except by those that where closest to her. The majority of her contemporaries are already gone, although succeeding generations have embraced her. She reached iconic status! A good number of women in country music will attribute their success to her. She blazed the trail! All the accolades are certainly deserved. 

 All of this is a reminder. I find myself saying goodbye to my contemporaries. Having moved away, as the saying goes, from my hometown many years ago I have lost contact with many of those contemporaries. Mostly I hear about their passing through social media. It is always a bit of a shock when that happens. How can that be, they are so young! That's how I feel about that, they are young. That's because I remember them all that way. Just like I remember those "famous" folks the way they were. The only difference being I have seen the "famous" get older, while my contemporaries, not so much. Oh, I've seen photographs on social media and find myself staring intently at them: to be sure. Is that really? How can that be? Then I glance in a mirror and see how that can be. It's sobering, that's the only way I know to describe that. With Loretta my first thought was, well she was ninety years old. That seems to justify her passing. 

 Putting a number on something, like dying, brings it into focus. Loretta was ninety and that seems like a long life alright, until I realize I'm sixty-nine. That's only twenty-one years from ninety! Twenty-one years isn't very long unless you are twenty, then it's a lifetime. I remember being in the service and working toward that twenty-year mark, I could retire then. It sure took a lot longer than twenty years I can testify to that! Today however, twenty years just flies by. Heck I've got grandchildren older than that, and socks! All I can hope for now is another twenty years like I had while in the service, ones that lasted a longer time. 

 Everything is relevant. Time is relevant. Relevance is a personal thing though, that's my thought. How others relate to me isn't that important, it's how I relate to others that determines my happiness. I control that! Everything else just happens in its' own time. Every time something happens it is the first time it happens, but that isn't our perception while we are alive. We only die once. That is what we believe even though many believe we will live again.  Could be it will be the first time or could be it will be the hundredth time. 

 How do you relate to death and dying? For me it's nothing to worry about, it'll happen regardless. It is something to think about though, I don't find that disturbing in any way. I'm in no hurry to take the final test, to find the answers, it's just something to think about. I don't want to know the number, or even speculate on that number. I'll reach that number, whatever it is, and go no further.