By Timothy D. Naegele[1]
I just had that fact brought home to me a few minutes ago, when I received an email message from the son of a dear friend in Germany, who said that his father had passed away today. The summer after we were married, my wife and I traveled 15,000 miles through Western Europe in a little Volkswagen "Beetle"; and the three of us met on the coast of then-Tito's Yugoslavia.
He was an arrogant German, who spoke nearly perfect English because he was an air traffic controller at Munich's airport, where English was used almost exclusively to communicate with the pilots of arriving and departing planes. Later, he went to work for Airbus, traveling the world as airports got ready for the arrival of the jumbo jets.
I was in Berlin with his wife and him when the Soviet Union collapsed; and members of its military were selling their uniforms and plumbing fixtures from their barracks, and going back to "tent cities" in the USSR. The West Germans gave the East Germans money, which they used to buy new VWs, before abandoning their bizarre Trabants in open fields.
Nothing underscores our mortality more that the death of a dear friend, or the death of a beloved pet.[2] Both gave us love; and in the case of the pet, it was unconditional love. Then they are gone, in an instant. Like our ancestors, no one remembers that they passed by here, much less their names. It is as if they never existed. But they did exist, and they were loved.[3]
Because my two kids and nine grandkids are older now, it's fun to watch little kids with doting family members at the local Costco, library or park, playing as if they had no cares in this world. They are like innocent puppies, whose "masters" give them loving care and attention. The homeless do this[4]; and the nurturing cuts across economic, ethnic, religious and age groupings.[5]
This is one of so many ways that God blesses us, while we are here on the Earth.[6]
Yet, isn't it morbid to talk about our own mortality, and the mortality of the human race? Don't we need positives to brighten our days? Aren't there enough negatives in the news each and every day, globally? Yes, that's true. But to fully appreciate God's goodness and omnipotence, we need perspective.
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© 2025, Timothy D. Naegele
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[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6 and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/ He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams. He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com
[2] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/the-wonder-dog-is-dead-and-part-of-me-died-with-her/ ("The Wonder Dog Is Dead, And Part of Me Died With Her")
[3] See https://www.rainbowsbridge.com/Poem.htm
[4] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/02/homelessness/ (Homeless In America, As The New Year Begins")
[5] See also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/why-die/ ("Why Die?")
[6] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/what-and-where-is-god/ ("What And Where Is God?")
