A Fact of Life

A tragic story about a teenage boy who died of food poisoning while on vacation with his parents made it into the news because the boy's father is a retired Major League Baseball player. It's heartbreaking and there is nothing anyone can say to make it less so. But the parents tried, by saying that their son "lived life to the fullest." 

Which is crazy, admit it. Living life to the fullest indicates that someone lived until maybe 100 years old or more. Certainly not to 14 -- that's just getting started. What else could it mean? How is living life to the fullest actually done? Personally I have never tried it, but I think it involves surfing in Hawaii.

Another common thing said about a dead loved one is that "their smile lit up the room" when they entered it. Also ridiculous. I am in my late 70s and have been present at countless wedding receptions, holiday parties, neighborhood potlucks, community meetings  and other events attended by many people and not once have I ever seen any room "light up" when a particular person walked in smiling.

The recently deceased are often the sweetest and kindest and most generous people about whom nobody has a negative word to say. Apparently death makes people nicer. Anyway, why every single death is such big news is odd, since it happens to everyone. (Even Freddie Mercury died, and he was surely some sort of god.)