Wow. Johnny Cash, 71. John Ritter, 54. Leni Riefenstahl, 101. Edward Teller, 95. Warren Zevon, 56.
Zevon and Ritter were not much older than I am, so this week's losses have tended to increase my mortality awareness. Zevon died from lung cancer years after he quit smoking and drinking (although there's now a suggestion that his cancer resulted from asbestos exposure), and Ritter died from an undetected heart defect. Which demonstrates to me the lack of control we really have over our fates--control is just an illusion.
And I was thinking a couple of days ago how Riefenstahl's work helped define my parents' early years by glorifying and selling Hitler to the Germans; how Teller helped define my early years by working on the atomic bomb and then lobbying for and shepherding the H-bomb, events that literally clouded my youth. And Zevon had an impact on me as well, providing the soundtrack to my more dissolute years. I, too, quit smoking and drinking years ago, but the residual damage could still come back to haunt me. Johnny Cash also overcame addiction; but the backstory may be that he died of a broken heart mere months after his wife, June Carter Cash, died.
Sorry to be morbid, but we pay attention to the passing of others because we know it will happen to us, no matter what we do. I'm just not sure I need so many reminders.
10:29:44 AM 
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