Death and All of His Friends

I was never a Michael Jackson fan. Thriller is a catchy cool little song, and there are a couple other songs that I would hum along to if they came on at a club or on the radio. That being said, I was shocked to hear (while I was working, of course…) that Michael Jackson died.

Not even a week later, after turning on ESPN, I heard about the death of former NFL quarterback Steve “Air” McNair. It was later learned that he was shot 4 times by his girlfriend in a murder-suicide.

I realize this isn’t the cheeriest blog post I’ve ever written, but watching a small part of the Michael Jackson special on TV, it wasn’t the many speakers, performances, or artists that made me really care too much about the passing of MJ. However when his little girl spoke, and you could see the look of immense disbelief and sorrow that one can just see and be completely moved by, you become instantly reminded that the underlying story behind all of it is that a person died, and now people are forced to go on without that person.

This is a look that I feel I have seen far too often in the past few months. I’ve seen it as a collective sports franchise has mourned the loss of the beloved and Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas. Harry Kalas was all we who watched Philadelphia baseball games knew as far as play by play announcers go, and now we lost the only thing we knew.

Not even two weeks later, I have seen it amongst a great number of fellow Loyola classmates who were suddenly without one of their best friends and left wondering why. One thing about us college kids is that we like to think we have our whole lives ahead of us, primarily because we are completely unsure about what our lives may bring. Unfortunately, no one really truly knows if we have our whole lives indeed ahead of us.

It’s never easy dealing with the passing of another. This is why all of those who were so close with late Loyola student, Steph Parente, have my utmost admiration for how they have handled it, and I cannot even begin to fathom what they must have gone through and continue to go through.

All of this just makes you realize how unpredictable life is, and how it can throw you the sourest of lemons at any time. Let us hope that none of us have to deal with the passing of another anytime soon.