My PILE of Obituaries

Yet again I reference my mysterious Piles. I have NEVER been closer to being rid of them...but in this final push, at just before 4am, I came upon a whole bunch of obits...for people I didn't even know. Yes, there are some obits that I come across that I am just so struck by, that so move me...of YOUNG people, usually relatively local...that I cut them out and save them...for the same reason as always -- generally to remind myself of the preciousness of life. Surely I'm the only one who does this? Two that I just came across...Eric Kumpf and Michael Curtin. Eric was 30 in 2003 when he died. He lived in Hoboken. He was one of the dozen people killed in a Chicago porch collapse. A PORCH collapse...during a party. Completely senseless. Michael was only 23 when he died in March of 2003...and the first NJ serviceperson to die in the Iraq war. I have a few things from the paper cut out about him. Not a word is easy to read. But I can't get over how someone so young volunteers to go to Iraq. It's beyond brave. Then I can't get over how someone so young is taken away from us. Whatever one thinks of the war, there are ENDLESS faces of young people who have died far from home in the hope of making a better world for the rest of us. The VERY least I can do is look at their face, read their name, and get to know their story. Michael Curtin, 23, from Howell, NJ is one of those faces of the war for me. And Eric Kumpf was someone my age, from the same area, took the same PATH train, went to the same bars...who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's all a gift...every second. Gotta remember that. THAT is why I cut out those obits. THAT is partly what constitutes the piles i'm painfully sifting through and organizing. THAT is why I should absolutely get my ass to see a Pacific Ocean sunset ASAP. We are NOT promised tomorrow.