Related to character traits, personality styles, and the like, most people who I know personally or professionally would NOT describe me to be a sentimental person. This is probably the case because of my willingness (sometimes eagerness) to blaze a new trail directly through, over or around more traditional paths.
Suffice it to say, my follower instincts aren't very developed. But I do appreciate sentiment, in small and appropriate doses. And one of the past events and people in my life that I've always carried a great deal of sentiment from is my grandfather, Jason Birchard. It was the first funeral of an immediate family member that I can recall attending, and it had a big impact on me.
Just a few words about my grandfather, Jason Birchard. I want to qualify everything I say here in advance by saying that I didn't know him all that well. But I did have a pretty developed impression of who Grandpa was. Others who knew him better may clearly disagree, or have wildly different views of him. But for me, this was "the truth" in terms of how I saw him.
Grandpa was a man with more character than you could imagine. It oozed out of him. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But I always knew him as someone who was uncompromising in being as he chose to be - himself. Very little outside influence dictated his outward and obvious character traits. And that came at a detriment to his closest relationships several times. But what I admired about Grandpa was the depth and strength of his character, and how unweilding he was NOT to let others change him. If he didn't want to change, he didn't.
Now, maybe he should have changed more than he did (almost certainly in hindsight), for the sake of others and his relationship with them. But I'm looking at the bright side of him, the 'glass is half full' side of how I perceived him.
The only reason I bring Grandpa up is because his life was defined in two poems that I was introduced to when they were read at his funeral. He died prematurely, and because of his unwillingness to change. "The Man in the Mirror" (actually called "The Guy in the Glass") and "Stations".
Here are the links (how do I embed these nicely?)
http://www.theguyintheglass.com/
http://www.thestationessay.com/
These two poems had a strong influence on me. One, they were read during a very impressionable time and place in my life. At Grandpa's funeral (I've been fortunate that I haven't attended many in my life) and at a time when I first began contemplating life in a more broad and wholistic view, something not easily accomplished when you have more of your life in front of you than behind you.
I love these two poems, and hope you do to. They both put life in a perspective that should be more conscious to all of us than ends up being the case. Most of us (including me) scurry through life worried about trivial things, things that don't matter when it all comes down to it.
I believe my Grandpa Birchard knew what was important to him in his life, and he always made time for those things. That was a harsh reality for those closest to him, but it was one of the things I saw in him that I can appreciate and take from his life.
I hope these poems strike a chord with everyone who reads them. Because of Grandpa Birchard, they've struck a particularly sentimental chord for me.
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