By now you know that Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut died Monday of pancreatic cancer. For lots of reasons, many of them reasonably personal, I've done a bit of digging and have concluded based on a review of available literature that while she was the textbook example of a purpose-driven life, hers was an especially painful death and no one deserves that.
I found this only a day or so ago and it made my eyes perspire, as my sister, Jill, used to say when she was small, because it is intensely personal. All the gender politics of the era and now, in death, even more gender politics, are nowhere to be found. This is Kathryn Sullivan, one person, remembering another person, Sally Ride.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe that's not what God really is-the perpetuation of someone's memory after they have ceased to be. And so long as someone, somewhere thinks of that person, they live on. I would hope each of us will have someone who would do that for us when our time is come.
And if you, for whatever reason, should doubt you are worth celebrating, let me assure you most certainly are. Actually let me introduce you to Phil Hellenes and encourage you to find the time to savor this. You are so worth it. We all are.
-bill kenny
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