OK, so it’s a great Billy Joel song. It fits as well as anything for this little piece.
I doubt highly regarded cyclist/triathlete/mtn. biker Steve Larsen, who died this week at age 39, and Navy rescue swimmer and Marshall (skip the smirks) HS graduate Aaron Clingman, who died this week at age 25, ever crossed paths in Bend, the town they both called home.
But they did this week, on the news and in the headlines. Both died inexplicably, to this point – super-fit Larsen collapsing and dying on the Cascade Middle School track of an as-yet undiagnosed heart ailment, Clingman with five crewmates in the crash of a Navy helicopter into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.
They say deaths come in threes, but let’s not hoist that old canard and just draw some comparisons and contrasts.
I’d never heard of either gentleman, but both no doubt had endured much and prevailed – Larsen winning accolades not just for his multi-sport prowess but his strong family commitment and easy-going way of offering help and advice to just about anyone who crossed his path.
We know far less of Clingman, only that he struggled at Bend HS, always wanted to be a rescue swimmer with the Navy and eventually got that prized diploma.
We know he had a wife and 10-month-old baby, and to look at those photos is both heartbreaking and inspiring.
Two men among the many who die too soon, in the midst of doing what they loved, that giving solace to friends and family, but not really easing the pain.
Sometimes, the shining examples of true lives lived day to day in inspiring ways only draw attention when they end. Which is sad, too, but … hey, we’re all too busy living our own lives.
But it’s worth taking a moment to stop and contemplate – should you, too, depart this mortal plane in an instant, what would people say about you?
I no doubt would have my grieving friends and supporters, and quietly smirking detractors (some of those anonymous online commenters who think I wield my delete-button sword because I’m power-hungry or I don’t agree with their views. In other words, wrong;-/
What would your headline say?
Leave it to Barney 
People will say anything, even after one is gone. What counts are the things, deeds, favors, unclaimed especially, surprises, and smiles that are left behind. What is is most important is that one has made strangers laugh, conversed with the lonely, and accepted the unaccepted. Mostly modled behavior of one that cares and is having fun at it. (even is sometimes one isn’t, show how to turn those things around). My son,” its hard to be mad while eating a popsicle.”