NAY to death

Some of you may have noticed I've been a little quiet on the blog lately. That's because I lost my Grandpa last weekend. Not in a wacky way like losing sight of him at a shopping mall or misplacing him along with my keys. He passed away. He's gone. And it sucks.

I guess there's nobody to blame ... except death itself or its popular manifestation the Grim Reaper. I realize he probably doesn't enjoy his job anymore than any other repo man or bearer of bad news, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let The Reaper off the hook. Wasn't there an unidentified murderer out there that could have been made a priority? How about those wonderful psychopaths that recently tortured a disabled man in Hamilton? Why isn't their number up yet? Oh right ... because it's not their time. Those names aren't on the scroll or whatever magic list he's carrying around in that cloak of his. Well that hardly seems fair. If death had a customer service centre, they would definitely be getting an earful from me. This whole system is bullshit. 

Now Disney has been preparing me to cope with death for years. *SPOILER ALERT* Bambi's Mom dies. Simba's Dad dies. I'm pretty sure Nemo dies but I haven't watched the end of that one yet. The bottom line is I've heard the message and it still didn't take the pain away. What's up with that? I'm used to hearing about soldiers I don't know dying for their country. I'm used to hearing about innocent people I've never met dying at the hands of drunk drivers. I'm not used to hearing that the big strong guy who always had a stick of Doublemint gum for me growing up is gone because of a massive stroke. Not cool. I'm sure that sounds selfish and I realize I'm extremely lucky that death hasn't touched my life this directly too often, but it still sucks. I just hope that when it's my time, I get my game of chess a la The Seventh Seal. I've got a few moves that just might save my ass.   

So NAY to you death. We will never be friends and if you need a ride to the airport ask somebody else. I'm busy.