Great Words to End the Year

Whenever I stay in a hotel, I always look forward to getting up in the morning and opening the door for my copy of USA Today. It makes me feel like I am home.

It is usually the Sports or Business section that gets my attention, but yesterday "The Final Word" from the Life section reached out to me.

I am in Akron, Ohio with my wife witnessing the passing of her mother. It has been a long and trying year, but she is comfortable at the Hospice and will soon join her friends and relatives in a better place.

These situations do make you think about your own mortality, thus my interst in Craig Wilson's piece.

He writes about a photographer, Brian Peterson, who has written about death and it's realities.

Peterson reflects on art and artists, on creativity and where it comes from, and along the way he bares his soul, sharing tales about his sister's death, his childhood home, his dog Sparky, and how Walt Whitman gave him "nourishment" once as he waited at a bus station years ago.

Luminous essays all, but one, less than three pages long, stands out. It's called "Strange Gifts."
In it Peterson talks about the approaching deaths of two men — one a guard at the museum where he works; the other a neighbor.

"Death was a gift for both of them — a strange and terrible gift that woke them up and opened their eyes to the reality of the world they were leaving," writes Peterson, who admits their deaths were a gift to him, too.

What he learned from them both — to pay more attention to the world around you — is an age-old lesson few of us ever learn.

We are all in a hurry. We don't even see the roses, let alone stop to smell them. We travel to the far reaches of the Earth but rarely see what's there. We sing "Slow down, you move too fast," but we don't hear the message.

"When I'm brushing my teeth at night and staring at my aging face in the mirror," Peterson writes, "sometimes I ask myself, 'Well, how did I do today? Did I miss anything?' "


As I titled the post, these are great words to the end of the year.

I hope you will look for the roses. I know when I travel to the far reaches of the earth (does Newark count), I will. Have a safe and a happy New Year. And thanks again Craig and Brian for the great words.

For the full text of the article:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2009-12-30-final30_ST_N.htm