Love and Death

Last Sunday I was listening to a radio piece from the show "This American Life" on NPR about the lives of Page and Eloise Smith, a couple who were married for over 50 years and who died within 36 hours of each other (Eloise first, and then Page). I was initially drawn to the listening to the piece because Page Smith was the founding Provost at Cowell College at the University of California, Santa Cruz--a place that shaped much of who I am today and where I met my wife and many of our dearest friends. So naturally, I had a desire to listen. However, after listening to the story of their life and practically their death together, I was touched by their unrelenting devotion to each other. Their story inspired me to be a better husband, father, human and made me realize how the abstactness of love is the foundation of life.

"It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch."