We Are Gathered Here Together

AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS POST IS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR ON FEBRUARY 2, 2016 IN THE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SECTION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

("How to Speak of the Dead")

Immediately before reading this piece, I was reviewing the second eulogy I have written this month.

While the public-private distinction is considered in your article, the private world is where the grieving and the comments reside for most of us.

And in that world we should airbrush out the foibles and inadequacies that exist in those who have left us to consider their former being. It is one thing to kick a man when he is down and wholly another to do so when he is forever out. 

There will be time in later days and years to paint a fuller image, to bring back in the warts and the scars on the  face of our departed friend or relative. But there is that moment where they deserve their peace, not a piece of your mind.

So, my words are of the best I can offer of each of those I speak. And for you who find Glenn Frey unworthy of your praise, take a few days off and consider the possibility that silence is sometimes golden.