The loss

   I had a funeral recently. I'm not sure what it is about winter but if you know someone who may 'leave the building', there's a good chance they're going to do it around the holidays. Luckily, for lack of a better word, my friend got to spend one last Christmas with his family. We are at the age where a lot of our friends will be burying their parents. We are in the 'You're Next!' generation. This particular person was a well loved instructor at my dojang and I trained with his daughter and her kids, too.
   If it could be said there was such a thing as a "great funeral", this was definitely one of them. There were an unbelievable amount of pictures from his life, from baby pictures and newspaper clippings to military photos. I learned he was a paratrooper, a bronze star recipient, and a Vietnam veteran. Funny how someone I knew as being a cuddly loveable old guy was one badass in his youth. Very few people knew about this side of him, it turns out. It was a military funeral with a salute and a flag draped coffin. We were warned there would be gunfire but it still startled me.
   There was a well deserved police escort from the funeral home to the cemetary, too. This was another first for me. It was also packed and it wasn't just because he had a large family. I found myself jealous wondering if my funeral would come anywhere close. My life, to date, hasn't exactly been lived in the service of my community and country. Our family is also really small.
   He was an instructor at my karate school and a walking wealth of information. I wish more people would write books about their lives. The knowledge loss was almost as big as the personal. He was never one to complain, no matter how he felt and he was always willing to help people learn things. It stinks when you get used to seeing a person and you get "too comfortable". It was hard for me to go to class before but I always looked forward to seeing him. Now, it's almost impossible. I miss the elephant that's no longer in the room. The saving grace is that we are all in the same boat.
    We learned a lot of new things about someone we saw on a regular basis, but the biggest lesson we all learned was humility.