Folks, I'm breaking my over-a-year-long streak of not posting because I have some sad news. Someone that I consider a good friend, Chance over at SayUncle, suddenly and unexpectedly lost his wife to an unexplained cardiac event earlier this week.
Words cannot express how shocked we all were to hear this news. I've known Chance for well over a decade, meeting him in person in 2010 at the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC, but having been online friends for years before that. Chance was one of the first "big" gunbloggers to link me, both when I was blogging at the site formerly known as North Georgia Dogma, then Toys in the Attic, and then here. He survived the three-hour-long, 7-mile ride from the hotel to the convention center in Pittsburgh in the Tactical Minivan.
Heck, Unc helped me get hooked up with Shooting Illustrated.
I honestly can't even begin to wrap my head around what he must be going through right now, I can't. Sudden, unexpected and life-changing; this would shatter pretty much anyone. I would take it as a kindness if you could go and drop Unc a word or two of encouragement, a joke, anything to help him in this darkest hour.
And Chance, if you see this: You've called me before; you have the number. If you ever want to talk, vent, or just have another human being on the other end of the phone, give me a call. I don't know what you're going through right now, but I'll do anything I can if it will help you right now.
I have to go, now, before I cry all over my laptop.
That is all.
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Deodand
Alternate title: The Teakettle Story, Fini.
With tears in my eyes, I am posting the final piece in the teakettle story from SCI-FI.
Original here.
Intermezzo here.
As with the middle story, I'll set off SCI-FI's comments with lines, but not the normal indent-and-blue-text format. I want to make sure it all gets across.
When I was a kid, my parents told me that you could defeat an enemy by turning him into a friend. A childhood lesson, but not a childish one. I wonder if it applies to inanimate objects?
There was no true way to destroy it. Burning, blasting, pulverizing - it still would exist, in ever more grotesque shapes. But after a thorough shredding and a 2900°F bath, the tea kettle has been remade.
Each cross contains some of the original tea kettle. Over the years, they will be handed out to Sweet P’s siblings as they reach Confirmation, and in the gifting, I hope they will remember the sister who couldn’t come along. She would have turned 10 this week.
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.
“The one who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
-Revelation 21:4-5
That, my friends, is simply beautiful. All around beautiful. A thing representing great sadness has been turned into a symbol of redemption and life. By channeling the tea kettle into the crosses, that which has been a curse can now become a blessing.
The pain of his daughter's premature passing will never fully heal; I would never expect it to. I hope - I pray - that the crosses will help bring not a closing (the true closing will only come not here, but in the next life) but at least a turning. I won't - can't - say any more, as it is the confidence of a friend, but I can tell you that no one should ever have to go through what SCI-FI and his family have gone through.
The rebirth of the teakettle is glorious, SCI-FI.
That is all.
With tears in my eyes, I am posting the final piece in the teakettle story from SCI-FI.
Original here.
Intermezzo here.
As with the middle story, I'll set off SCI-FI's comments with lines, but not the normal indent-and-blue-text format. I want to make sure it all gets across.
When I was a kid, my parents told me that you could defeat an enemy by turning him into a friend. A childhood lesson, but not a childish one. I wonder if it applies to inanimate objects?
There was no true way to destroy it. Burning, blasting, pulverizing - it still would exist, in ever more grotesque shapes. But after a thorough shredding and a 2900°F bath, the tea kettle has been remade.
Each cross contains some of the original tea kettle. Over the years, they will be handed out to Sweet P’s siblings as they reach Confirmation, and in the gifting, I hope they will remember the sister who couldn’t come along. She would have turned 10 this week.
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.
“The one who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
-Revelation 21:4-5
That, my friends, is simply beautiful. All around beautiful. A thing representing great sadness has been turned into a symbol of redemption and life. By channeling the tea kettle into the crosses, that which has been a curse can now become a blessing.
The pain of his daughter's premature passing will never fully heal; I would never expect it to. I hope - I pray - that the crosses will help bring not a closing (the true closing will only come not here, but in the next life) but at least a turning. I won't - can't - say any more, as it is the confidence of a friend, but I can tell you that no one should ever have to go through what SCI-FI and his family have gone through.
The rebirth of the teakettle is glorious, SCI-FI.
That is all.
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