First, a reference to Joel Rieman’s memorial on The Esoterik Blog (click the sentence)…
Now for an update, since I’ve had some time to digest all that has gone on since then. The Rieman family has, for the last year, been healing very well from their loss. Again, I regret that I hadn’t gotten to know him well when he was with us. From observing him on the few occasions, I found I enjoyed his company. However I found out that, besides me and the family, someone else had this regret too.
About a month or so ago, I recieved a strange phone call. A young lady, who’s name I later learned is Joy, was doing a search on Joel to find out what’s been going on with him. As many of us know, the internet seems to be bigger than the world itself, in regards to all the different kinds of information that you can dig up on someone. Sometimes it’s better than hiring a private detective! As I talked with her, she explained that she had once dated Joel and, even though things didn’t work out, remained good friends with him. She hadn’t talked to him for several years and wanted to see how he was doing after all this time. Anyways, through the magic of Google, she found his name in this blog… along with the heart-breaking revelation of his passing. The good thing that came out of all this is that I refered her to Joel’s mother, whom she called the next day. Plans were made for Joy to join the family on the anniversary of his passing, coincidentally just two weeks from then.
It’s unfortunate when time and distance keeps any of us from regular communication with those we care about. Even in our technologically advanced culture, the simple act of the written word or phone call is treated as an afterthought. I guess one lesson learned here is, even though many people say that you should always tell someone how much you appreciate them because you don’t know when you’ll get the chance again, there will always be something left unsaid, something left undone. It’s best to live for the here and now, put your trust in God to guide your mind and heart, and let come what may. There’s a reason that things happen the way they do, even if we can’t understand why, and we may never know the answer. All we can do is keep the faith in our hearts that things will work out for the best, even if it seems crazy at the time.
The other lesson is that blogs are good for more than the mere journalling of one’s thoughts. Cruise through a stranger’s blog and you may find interesting or useful info. I’ll have to remind myself to update the blogroll in the sidebar!
Cheers and blessings to all!!
