Death
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We’ll Have to Muddle Through Somehow
There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. Erma Bombeck Thursday will be my first Christmas without Mom. I have been facing this realization since her death earlier in the year, but the awareness has become more intense with each passing day. I can’t stop thinking about Continue reading
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First Frost
All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. J. R. R. Tolkien We had our first frost of the season on Saturday. Having lived in Minnesota since the 1980s, I know that no Continue reading
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Annunciation
We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure. Cesar Chavez Last Friday, Linda and I rode our bikes to the Church of the Annunciation to pay our respects to those who were killed and injured during the recent mass shooting. We were away from Continue reading
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Reframing Aging
My position has always been that the way people age and the signs that we show of aging is nature’s way of tattooing. It’s natural scarification, and the life you lead gives you the symbols and the emblems of your life, the road map you followed. Frances McDormand As I wrote about in my article Continue reading
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Mom
It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful? Mahatma Gandhi My mother, Bernadine Mary Hazinski Prokop, passed away this past Friday at 4:40 a.m. Arizona Time. She was 98 years old. There is much that I would like to say about Mom, but it’s too early in Continue reading
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Time Beyond, Time Without
Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. Lao Tzu It has been said that there are five stages of grief: Denial, bargaining, depression, anger, and acceptance. Today is the second anniversary of my brother Bob’s death and since waking this morning I’ve felt every one of them to one Continue reading
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Lasso the Moon
Wise to resolve, and patient to perform. Homer Until the pandemic put an end to it (as it did to too many traditions in my life), Linda and I loved going to the Riverview Theater for their annual holiday showing of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Even though I have seen it countless times Continue reading
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Three Vignettes
I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy. Charles Baudelaire Foster’s Creek Few mourned when Clarence Findley died. He did not live a life that endeared him to many people. Clarence Findley was a hard drinking, mean spirited cuss of a man, and you could count on one Continue reading
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The Time for Prayer Has Passed
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Martin Luther King Jr. Once more my news feed is filled with stories about another school shooting. Four people were killed, nine were injured, and the perpetrator appears to be 14-year-old boy with Continue reading
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Richard Alexander Prokop
Death ends a life, not a relationship. Mitch Albom August 28, 2024 marks the eight-year anniversary of my brother Richard’s unexpected and not so unexpected death. I say “not so unexpected” since Richard had been neglecting his health for a long time. He was the type who either ignored a problem or minimized its significance. Continue reading
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The Stranger
I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. Harriet Tubman July 8th was the 9th anniversary of my father’s death. He died at a memory care facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. I was at a Continue reading
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Death Does Not Become Me
Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. Virginia Woolf I remember the day my then 80ish-year-old father said, “Everyone I know is dead or dying.” I am many years shy of that age, but I am starting to experience more death than I care for. In the Continue reading
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Robert Steven Jeffery Prokop
In my life I have found two things of priceless worth – learning and loving. Nothing else – not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake – can possibly have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say ‘I have learned’ and ‘I have loved,’ you will Continue reading
Can You Hear Me Now 