Rest Peacefully Gentle Warrior

It's already after Christmas and I feel exhausted. I'm not so sure why I'm so tired. Kendo is off for a week until after the New Year and it's too cold to go for a run outside. Last night, I took my sister and folks to Romano's Macaroni Grill in Middleton after doing some stock food shopping at Sam's Club. Besides that, I grew tired from doing nothing.

At dinner, ESPN had announced that Reggie White had died in his sleep Sunday morning, possibly from a sleep apnea. Growing up in Wisconsin, I will always remember him as No. 92 for the Packers when they took the Vince Lombardi trophy back home to Green Bay in SuperBowl XXXI. White was a key player on a team that brought glory back to a failing franchise. Although we will remember him for his aggressiveness on the football field, we won't forget his gentle character in life and now in death.

Reggie White
1961-2004



The Dying Christian To His Soul
by Alexander Pope

Vital spark of heav'nly flame,
Quit, oh, quit, this mortal frame!
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying,
Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life!

Hark! they whisper; Angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away.
What is this absorbs me quite,
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my Soul! can this be Death?

The world recedes; it disappears;
Heav'n opens on my eyes; my ears
With sounds seraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy Victory?
O Death! where is thy Sting?