AN OBITUARY OF SORTS...

...one of the boys of summer is gone...

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Blogger's note: the image at the end of this post might upset some of you; it's not graphic, but it does assault the senses. If you're easily upset, don't scroll past the first picture you see below...

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I've never liked the word "goodbye". How can someone be there one moment, and gone in the next? A man I've respected a long, long time has left the building. And still the world keeps spinning, and so we have to carry on. Unfortunately, as the days pass, the ones who are gone recede further and further into the past, and in a hundred years, we'll all be gone, and whoever's left then will have to carry on, and so on, and so forth...
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Dave Niehaus, longtime announcer of the Seattle Mariners, passed away yesterday from a heart attack. Gone, just like that. Oh, but he had the heart of a lion, and now that heart has been stilled. He's been a part of my life for the past 15 years, and for many other fans, longer than that. He, in my opinion, was the voice of Summer. The world was still okay, because Niehaus was on board for another season. He touched a lot of people that he never knew or met.
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"My, Oh My!!!"..."Swung On and BELTED"..."GET OUT THE RYE BREAD AND MUSTARD, GRANDMA; IT'S GRAND SALOME TIME"...no one will ever do it like Dave Niehaus did it. Some people stand out; some people are Bigger Than Life, and Dave Niehaus was one of those elite few. I'll listen to the upcoming season and more after that, but not in the same way. Whoever's in the Mariners' Broadcasting Booth next year has some Mighty Big Shoes To Fill.
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Goodbye, Mr. Niehaus.
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Just recently, I came upon a situation which I'm still trying to put into perspective. Life can get really harsh for creatures here on the ocean. Recently I saw three crows chasing a seagull, and the gull looked none too happy about it. I wonder what became of it. I see pelicans preying upon unsuspecting fish, ready to swoop in like a Kamikaze death squad. I see Seagulls in their role as scavengers, making a feast out of some poor creature washed up on the beach...so goes life...so goes death...we all get 'washed up' sooner or later, I guess.
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A few days ago, I came upon a deceased seagull in a parking lot near the ocean. Evidently, it had just died, for its feathers were still waving in the wind and it looked like it could spring back to life at any moment. Life takes its toll on the gulls down here, and some look so beaten-up by the weather (and indeed, by each other), that they look motley and ragged. But this particular seagull seemed to convey an image of peace and stillness, and perhaps personifies in a way, what the arrival of death is like. After all the pain, there's peace. After all the suffering, the journey is over. And it's in that spirit that I've displayed this photo: (Again, don't scroll down if you're easily shocked...)
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I don't know if this gull got into a battle with another gull, or if it was soaring overhead and its little heart just gave out. I was taken by the tranquil look on its face. No more competing for food and suffering through cold winter winds for this bird. And maybe that's what the end of life is like...no more awful people to deal with, no more bad memories, no more antagonism; life is just Over, and that's it. The dying's the hard part. With death, it's over. Just Like That.
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I don't like it when things are "over". Why do things have to end? I'll never get used to that part of the Life Cycle. It may not be over 'til it's over, but when it's over, it's Done. Finito. We're all just Hanging In There. And I hope it's not over for me for a long, long time.