My mother called out to me late yesterday evening. She had just returned from having some coffee in town and had heard the terrible news that someone had drowned.
“Larry has passed,” she said. “Larry, the guy who owns that artisanal brewery you used to go to, right?”
I called a mutual friend right away.
It had just happened. It’s one of those types of news you can’t really digest. Almost as if you’re waiting for someone to tell you it’s all just a misunderstanding.
Sure enough, it was true.
Larry has crossed the rainbow.
It’s part of our nature to want to know what happened. Maybe we’re trying to make mental notes. How can we be safer? Could this happen to someone else? To someone I love?
Whatever the reason, we feel this need to understand.
Apparently, Larry had just gone for a swim when the currents sucked him in.
The tides have been acting crazy lately, and what I can only describe as giant whirlpools have been forming surprisingly close to shore. The ocean is also unusually warm right now because of the El Niño conditions we're experiencing. I don't know if the two are related, and I'm certainly no oceanographer, but the water has felt different lately.
I’m not going to sit here and claim that I was close to Larry or anything like that. He seemed, as far as I could tell, like a cool person, and we exchanged pleasantries quite a few times.
We live in a small town, after all, and he did run a small brewery.
But still, it’s hard not to feel bummed out by something like this.
For one, I’m reminded of our fragility.
How a simple decision, like taking a dip in the ocean on a sunny evening, can become the last thing we ever do.
I’ve never decided if I believe in destiny or predetermined paths. I certainly feel like I land on both sides of the argument at different times.
But I do remember something Grandpa repeated often:
“If it’s meant to happen, it will. If it’s not meant to happen, you won’t be able to make it so.”
Was he right?
I don’t know.
That question is stored in the drawer of unknowns.
But boy, some days it feels very true.
MenO
