One Empty Chair...

I haven’t blogged in ages for two reasons:

1) I’ve been very busy living life and
2) I have had nothing noteworthy to say

Until now.

When I was 13 years old, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. The injustice of it all saddened me and touched me so deeply that I wrote a lengthy essay and compiled a book of newspaper clippings. It wasn’t a school assignment – it was June for cryin’ out loud. And I was 13. It wasn’t a requirement.

I did it because I needed some place to take my grief.

I feel that need again. Tim Russert died suddenly last week and I was in left shock; wondering why such a good man in his prime would be taken. He was a man I greatly admired – for his intelligence, his humour, but most of all - his integrity. That’s not a quality we find in society much these days.

Tim was a fixture in the newscasts I follow. A tough interviewer? Yes. A brilliant man? Yes. But what touched me? His warmth as a human being. His integrity came thru – you could just see it in his manner, his fairness, his love of family, his faith, his generous spirit… I loved his enthusiasm for life. He took a big ol’ bite out of life. And I so love anyone who does that.

I will miss him particularly in this political season. I remember him saying after the Super Bowl in January of 2008, “Well, MY Super Bowl is just beginning!” It will not be the same without him…

Tim Russert set the bar high.

And he makes me want to be a better person.

Thanks for listening. Because 40 years later - eerily almost to the day -- I needed some place to take my grief…