Embracing a Hole in the Ground

The only person close to me that I've had pass away was Eric, who I wrote about earlier this month, on the fifth anniversary of his death. I'm not trying to pish-posh his death, but it's not the same as a parent or sibling or child dying, obviously. And I've never had someone with that sort of closeness, someone who was truly a part and parcel of who I was as a person, pass away.

I bring this up because I feel like it probably has some sort of influence on how I feel about death and how I view it.

See, I've always struggled to understand people who were profoundly affected by death. That probably comes off as cold and/or callous, but it's true.

Watch me try to justify this after the break.

03/05/06

Saturday marked the five-year anniversary of the death of Eric Suurmeyer.

That's not going to be a name common to all of you; maybe not to any of you, but it's a name that I'm familiar with and it's a name that's important to me. See, Eric was a good friend of mine in college. During my sophomore year, he was a freshman who lived in the dorm room immediately adjacent to mine. We played video games, watched movies, visited the Mall of America and Ikea; we did all of those typical things that college kids who are friends do with each other.

More after the jump.