Friend John sent an email yesterday, reporting that his mother had died. They'd just brought her home from the hosptial and were making ready for hospice care. There will be a memorial service tomorrow morning.

John noted the unreality of it all. While this major and sometimes overwhelming event has taken place, the rest of life goes on around us. The same TV shows are on. Massachusetts drivers are still idiots. Kids are hitting their resonance frequencies as they anticipate Christmas. How do we fit this death in with the tremendous ordinariness around us? And if it doesn't fit, what then?

I'll take my father to the services for his friend, Ben, this morning. The owner of the funeral home is a good friend. He lives year-around at Queen Lake. The stairs to the funeral home are pretty steep, so my father called the owner and asked if he could come in the back way, using the elevator.

There was talk of snow today, but the cloud cover seems to be pretty thin.