Sudden death and the search for answers
It has been interesting watching another industry, in this case TV, go through the same exercise we went through here when my friend Russell Shaw died a few months ago.
This time the victim was Tim Russert, and while no one wrote an article called TV hosting will kill you, there were the usual warnings about Type A personalities and, more frightening still, the simple truth. You never know.
When an arterial plaque breaks off and starts floating free, there's a time bomb in you. The result could be a heart attack or an embolism, but there's a boulder rushing through tiny pipes inside you, a deadly needle in your haystack.
The good news is that coronary disease is declining, as we learn more about the risk factors. The bad news is people still die, quite suddenly, when they seem to be at the peak of their powers, or at their happiest.
The last word here belongs to blogger (and rabbi) Kurt Stone, who served us so well at Russell's funeral in Ft. Lauderdale.
What man supposes, God disposes. Find joy in every day of your life, because no one (so far) has gotten out alive.
No one knows when, or how, the hammer will fall. We just know it will.