Posted on 12/22/2005 1:14:17 PM PST by beyond the sea
I have watched my parents bury two of my four siblings, the most recent just six weeks ago, when we laid to rest my brother. He would have celebrated a birthday on Thursday. I have witnessed the raw emotion that accompanies such a tragic event.
So when the ESPN.com editors dispatched an e-mail Thursday morning, seeking a reactionary column to the death of James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, I approached the laptop keyboard with this firsthand reality: Not even the greatest literary giants of this or any other time are capable of crafting words sufficient to assuage the profound grief that is inherent to the passing of any parent's child.
Admittedly more hack than wordsmith am I, so there isn't a single syllable of this column that can adequately console the Dungy family on their loss, or even remotely make sense of the situation. Editors have a pet term, "weighing in," on such stories. But words, even the sort of eloquent prose of which I'm rarely capable, carry little gravitas at these times.
To say nothing, though, in such cases is to essentially be as hollow as the hollow words themselves, and so some sincere effort is surely in order.
There is a devastating incongruity that transpires when the circle of life suddenly comes unraveled, and parents are called upon to bid an early farewell to a child. The celebrity imposed upon Tony Dungy and his family because of his station in life will neither lessen nor exacerbate what certainly must be the most painful experience imaginable.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
And a bump
Have a blessed Christmas...sw
Good point. Well taken.
God bless all parents whose hearts carry this burden.
Notoriety? I think you mean celebrity status?
Prayers for the Dungy family.
I can only imagine the pain they are going through. They will need their faith and our prayers to make it through this.
Mark Twain lost THREE children: A boy at two years of age early in uis marrage, Suzy, his favorite, in her early twenties. Then his youngest daughter on IIRC Christmas eve 1909--her name escapes me also.
He wrote very movingly of the last daughters death in his autobiography. He ended the book with it. If you read it you will never forget and forever see the hearse as Twain saw it that day from the window of his home in Conneticut, vanishing slowly, softly, in to the swirling falling snow.
Twain comes pretty damn close to finding words to describe what a person feels at such a time and transmitting the sense to others.
This morning there was a link posted here to a personal webpage at myspace.com, called "dungy", who attended Hillsborough Community College in Tampa.
The moderators at freerepublic.com seem to have removed the link - either that or I just can't find it. As well, the moderators at myspace.com may have also removed the link there. Does anyone have that link still?
However, a friend of his has a comment about James Dungy on his page listed below:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=31869715
This tragic loss has gotta be hitting the Colts organization pretty hard. I've read several articles today and a few quotes from various Colts players said that he was just like family to them. James hung around the players, the coaches, in the equipment room, out on the practice field. He was "one of the guys" as it were.
Local news in Orlando said it is a suicide...anyone else have confirmation of this?
Yep. MSNBC's website is reporting that.
******
The common use is “the quality or condition of being notorious; the state of being generally or publicly known; -- commonly used in an unfavorable sense; as, the notoriety of a crime.
"When katie couric's husband died, we were supposed to handle her with kid gloves."
You know, this really isn't necessary. Amazingly enough, I not only lost a child 11 months ago (cardiac arrest in an athletic 18-year-old), but I also knew Jay, Couric's husband, in college. We weren't best buddies and didn't stay in touch, and I have absolutely no idea what his politics were, but he was a good guy and a pretty decent lacrosse player. Man could he fly.
Thanks for the shout Howlin'. Family's in town helping thank goodness.
From "Christmas Bells"
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!
As with any composition that touches the heart of the hearer, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" flowed from the experience of Longfellow-- involving the tragic death of his wife Fanny and the crippling injury of his son Charles from war wounds.
prisoner6
Thank you for adding those meaningful words to this thread.
ongoing prayers and tears for Tony and family.....
(Romans 10:17)
Maranatha
Unfortunately you cannot "assure" me of anything. I spent a Valentine's Day choosing a casket spray for my only child. So don't "assure" me what anyone's feelings are about losing a child on a day when the rest of the world is celebrating happiness.
Last night, I went to friends who are burying their son today. Yes, Christmas lights and wreathes, like the ones on the door of the funeral home, will now forever be associated with death for the family.
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