Morbid Conversation

When my Boyfriend and I were walking our two miles this morning we somehow got on the subject of how it will affect us when we get old and all of our friends die.

By the way, that has not started happening to either of us yet!

I reminded him that when my Real Husband was going to a dialysis clinic every other day for 8 years, a third of the patients died each year.

How would it be if you were a high school student and a third of your classmates died each year?

Then my Boyfriend and I discussed resiliency and how you'd think that teenagers would have greater resiliency than 90 year olds - but it doesn't work that way.

Virtually all of our young men and women returning from Iraq are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome and much of it is due to seeing their friends suffer and die.

My take on it is that part of our maturing process helps us to deal with this kind of loss. It's a natural part of life.

There's nothing "natural" about young people dying.