Dear Readers

I'm late with this week's post because I honestly thought I'd written a Dear Reader letter! LOL

This has been a difficult week. My husband and I had gone to Ocean City because I was burned out. A little crispy critter. I've had some difficult back-to-back deadlines and one of my dearest friends was dying. I desperately needed some time away.

We had several nice days but yesterday my friend's husband called to let me know she had passed.

There is no experience in life that rivals or compares to losing a friend. Someone close to your age...Denise was actually 4 years younger than I am...who one minute is so full of life and the next has a terminal illness.

We walk around so confident in ourselves, confident that we'll have a tomorrow, confident that our friends will always be with us. But really we don't have an assurance of anything...except God. But I won't get into that here. At least not yet.

My point is: Having spent four months very upset about my friend and kind of getting kicked around by some surprising people because I was vulnerable, I can't help wondering...Why aren't we nicer to each other?

Does our society sort of breed a survival of the fittest attitude?

Life really is short. It's also unpredictable. None of us know the number of our days. Or the days of our friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors.

We don't know if the person emailing with a complaint is in the throes of incredible grief. Of the person who cuts us off in traffic is on her way to the hospital to see her dying dad. Or if the person who almost knocks us over in Walmart is purchasing PJs for her son in the hospital.

We don't know anything...

So why aren't we nicer to each other?

susan