Good Grief (in a truer sense)

Grief is a profound iteration of humane appreciation.  A friend of mine called me this past weekend to tell me that his mother suddenly passed away.  I could tell he was really shaken by her death.  While he brought the conversation to lighter notes toward the end and we hung out a few days later discussing gentlemanly adventures in literature and existentialism, his wavering voice from the phone call lingered in my memory throughout the week.

I never met his mother, and we actually only hung out a handful of times, but I really appreciated that he reached out to let me know about recent developments in his life.  I also think the things we appreciate about people are things we can strive to hone and exemplify in continuation of the legacy that individual had created.  If we trace our influence from mourning far enough back, it's a legacy of our deeper humanity which we really perpetuate.