Day 158 On Coincidence

When I opened this page this evening to write my post, I noticed that it had   been exactly one month since my last entry.  I've struggled with aspects of this post for a couple of weeks now.  

Almost two weeks ago, I received a phone call and text message from my daughter telling me that one of  my favorite college professors had passed away. I wasn't surprised.


Why? Because the day before, I picked up a stack of papers and found a letter from that prof in the pile.  I sat and reread the letter and purposed to write a letter to him on the next day as it had been some time since we'd communicated.
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Then the phone call and text came.  Bob had passed away.  He was 79, and lived a good life.  He was my history professor and in his classes I decided to become a history major. He was a photographer and took massive amounts of photos and slides that he shared with his classes. He showed how art, architecture, music, literature all influenced history and vice versa. He tied the history to the contemporary and infused in his classes the importance of understanding the "why's" of history. 

He loved China and Taiwan.  He had before and after photos of Hong Kong. For some younger readers,  you may not know that for a long time, Hong Kong was a part of the British Empire and wasn't "returned" to China until late in the 20th century.  The move from relative freedom to communism was documented in his photos.

I traveled to the former Soviet Union with Bob and his family. A dozen of us total visited several Iron Curtain countries. Some of them no longer exit. Others have struggled to find their independence and place in the world.  All of them had deep, varied, rich histories and stories of proud people who lived during extraordinary times. Traveling there brought all the facts I'd studied to life and the experience etched into the fiber of my being.

My two older children were privileged to meet Bob. They saw some of those photos. More importantly they had a chance to meet the man that influenced me so much.

So when my daughter let me know that he'd passed, and I had just reread the letter, I wasn't surprised.

In the past forty years I've learned that when someone I  haven't communicated with in a while comes to mind, I need to act on it. This has been God's way of giving me a last opportunity to let these people know how much they've meant to me.

So many times people get to a certain point in their lives and they have wonders and doubts about what their life has really been about and whether or not they have made a difference.

Everyone makes a difference. It might be for good or ill, but every person has an impact on the lives of people around them. If the difference has been of positive influence, let them know. I have the confidence that Bob knew how highly I thought of him and the impact he had on my life.  I went out of my way to visit him several times in the past four decades.  We exchanged letters.  These are wonderful, warm memories I have of a man that is no longer with us.  Memories and experiences that I was able to share with other important people in my life.

When someone is brought to mind, dial that phone number, dig up that email address, or mailing address and let them know you are thinking of them.  It could very well be your last opportunity.