A Reunion of Sadness

Funerals bring people together like a warm bonfire on a cold winter's day. Black-clad people from all walks of all life join together to tell stories, shake hands, share laughter and tears. People who know each other only by name cry and hug each other in a slow, sincere, sorrowful way. Hidden smiles are released as well as hidden tears. It is a reunion of sadness.

It's sad when relatives and old friends have to gather together on such an occasion as death. My Uncle Nathan died about a week ago and I attended his view the other night. It was hard, seeing my family cry like that. It's the type of tears that come straight from your heart, sobs that never end, empty stares. I don't really feel sad for his death since I hardly knew him. He lived in Colorado for the past few years. I do feel sad for all those who are hurting because he left.

I've experienced that sadness leaves when we're around others, especially those who love and care for us. All those people in the room of the viewing shared in one universal unspoken language of sorrow. They all felt that sad emptiness that comes with death and because of those feelings they shared, they were able to connect. People who hadn't seen each other for years would embrace as if they were the best of friends. It was amazing how as soon as the people filled the room, comfort and happiness entered too.

I was thinking about this years reflections theme, 'Together we can...' I know that a lot of people may take this to mean together we can do anything or together we can make a difference. I've been thinking of it in a more solemn, every day sort of way. Together we can make it through this. Together we can heal.

9/11 was this past weekend, and we watched a few hear-wrenching videos with footage of the tragedy. That was a hard thing for America, and when that occurred everyone across the U.S. shared in that unspoken language of sorrow. I believe that we have never been more united as a people than we were at the time of that awful tragedy. People came together because that sadness and fear was too great to bear alone. Together America is still healing.

We have families, we have friends, we have people because we, as humans, need company but we also need comforters, people who share our hardest feelings. We need people to listen to us, to hold us, to lift us up. We, as humans, cannot stand to live alone. I don't know how the hermits do it. Only together are we strong enough to face the tragedies and awful events that shape us as a Nation and as individuals. Together we can...