Through the haze of religious Faith and the passage of time, I remember learning little about death as a child, except for a nagging sense of abandonment.  It was no different than a divorce and no more respectable.

Those veterans who have lost buddies remember an unjust punishment being imposed on them by a faceless, immoral authority that rips a buddy out of your life.  It also didn’t deserve respect.

I have a loved one in her fifth month of hospice.  Last week, I lost a 48-year old friend in Richmond, who died suddenly and unexpectedly.  Last night, another loved one was told he has two to six months.

Maybe, I am thinking about death too much.  As a financial advisor, my disrespect for death must be dispassionate enough that my evaluation of economic and financial data remains unbiased.  I must be dispassionate enough to avoid over-reacting to Europe in general and Cyprus in particular.  Fortunately, as an existentialist, I have no problem being dispassionate.

Pop star Lady Gaga sings that people are born however they are, which is like saying a big hunk of raw marble might contain a statue.  It might be marble, but it is not Michelangelo’s David.  That takes work!