Posted on 03/07/2006 8:41:33 AM PST by Congressman Billybob
Two excellent human beings died this week, long before their time. One thing connects Kirby Puckett, baseball player, and Dana Reeve, actress and widow of Christopher Reeve. It is Ernest Hemingway’s immortal definition of heroism, “grace under pressure.” This man and this women were both heros.
Kirby Puckett was a Hall of Famer, one of the finest athletes in Minnesota in any sport. As an outfielder and slugger for the Minnesota Twins, he made the impossible seem natural with his skills. There’s an article in the Pioneer Press, “Weren’t the Cheers Only Yesterday?” which captures the magic of his ability. He suffered a stroke, and died this week, at the age of only 44.
Dana Reeve was an actress and a singer, most known and respected for her work to support her husband’s struggle to stay alive, to be a spokesman for treatment of spinal injuries, and to continue his work in films. Unlike Puckett, she could see her death coming.
In August of 2004, after her husband had lost his struggle with his paralysis, she announced that she’d been diagnosed with lung cancer. Per the Associated Press obituary on her, in November of that year she said she was able to keep her spirits up because she "had a great model. ... I was married to a man who never gave up." She died of her cancer this week, at age 44.
Others have written better than I, about the lives of these two exemplary people. I write today about their ages at death. I’m at the leading edge of the Baby Boomers, born during WW II. But to all Boomers, including the younger ones, people in their mid-forties are “youngsters,” still a little wet behind the ears.
Reading of the deaths of “young” people, who still had so much to do, so much to offer, is sobering. It raises this frightening question, “What had you accomplished by the time you were 45?”
For most of us, the answer is not much. Mark Twain captured this thought well in a speech at Oxford University, where he was given a great award, not conferred before for fifty years. Twain recalled an incident from Dana’s Two Years before the Mast, but embellished it as only he could:
“A frivolous little self-important captain of a coasting-sloop in the dried-apple and kitchen-furniture trade was always hailing every vessel that came in sight, just to hear himself talk and air his small grandeurs. One day a majestic Indiaman came ploughing by, with course on course of canvas towering into the sky, her decks and yards swarming with sailors, with macaws and monkeys and all manner of strange and romantic creatures populating her rigging, and thereto her freightage of precious spices lading the breeze with gracious and mysterious odors of the Orient.
“Of course, the little coaster-captain hopped into the shrouds and squeaked a hail: ‘Ship ahoy! What ship is that, and whence and whither?' In a deep and thunderous bass came the answer back, through a speaking-trumpet: The Begum of Bengal, a hundred and twenty-three days out from Canton -- homeward bound! What ship is that, and whence and whither?'
“The little captain's vanity was crushed, and most humbly he squeaked back: ‘Only the Mary Ann, fourteen hours out from Boston, bound for Kittery Point with a cargo of nothing in particular.’ ”
Twain ended that speech saying, “at times like this, I feel like the Begum of Bengal, a hundred and twenty-three days out from Canton – homeward bound! But most times I am only the Mary Ann, fourteen hours out from Boston, with a cargo of nothing in particular.”
I don’t suggest that those of us who accomplished little by age 45, are destined to accomplish not much to the ends of our lives. I keep close to mind the examples of Harland Sanders and Ray Kroc. Both were journeymen salesmen until late in their lives before they began the creations of Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds, at ages 65 and 52, respectively. In short, there is hope for us Baby Boomers, yet.
The point of this is promising, not morbid. We do not know the time we are allotted, nor the fate of the tasks to which we set our hands. We only know we should act with courage to do what we can, however we can, in what time we have. And if we live right, there will be in there some moments of “grace under pressure,” some acts of heroism.
A personal note: my weekly columns have become less than weekly due to the demands of another “project” as noted below.
About the Author: John Armor is candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
John / Billybob
It raises this frightening question, “What had you accomplished by the time you were 45?”
I think most of us have death and/or difficult circumstances visit us. And most of us triumph or at least fight to a reasonable draw. We do it with the same courage that Dana and Kirby did, only we do it out of the public eye.
How can I have missed that Dana Reeve died. Lung cancer...horrible, horrible way to die. RIP, Mrs. Reeve.
"It's sobering to realize that by my age, Mozart had been dead for three years."
BillyBUMP
Ecclesiastes 7
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because death is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Condolences to the Reeve and Puckett families and friends.
Thanks to Kirby and the Twinkie crew for 2 World Series championships.
We are, after all, just dust in the winds of time, we may rage and bloom against the backdrop of our cosmic realm, but in the end , will return to whence we came, hopefully the better for our sojourn.
Im 28 and i have helped give life to 2 and soon to be 3 kids. I feel that I have given the world 3 incredible gifts as a vehicle for God...the other stuff I have attempted to give is minor in comparison.
As Tom Lehrer said so well, many years ago, "It's a sobering thought to realize that when Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for two years." :)
I should have read ahead in the thread! GMTA.
Bump
Think I'll grab another beer and go to the couch.
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