And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead

Into everyone's life, a little death must come, and they will know us by the trail of the dead-----

--A friend of mine, has a job. Part of the requirements of Sharon's job is collecting rent from past due residents. If the 4th of the month has come and you have not paid your rent, Sharon will knock on your door, like clockwork. Arrangements can be made to pay late, she is pretty understanding as far as that goes, but in the end if the arrangements are not met and Sharon will go knocking on doors again. Yesterday Sharon knocked on a door, that will never be answered again.
The guy had been dead for a few days. He had made arrangements to pay rent on Friday and never made it. It is hard to pay rent when you are dead.He was dead face down on his bed, when Sharon walked into his apartment. She smelled him she said, she knew right away before she even walked into the room.
The past weekend was mild but with no AC running the room was stuffy, Sharon said she knew he was dead, she smelled death.
This was not her first "rodeo". This was not the first body that she has found while attempting to collect rent, it is after all part of her job. Sharon called the coroner and they came and picked up the body.
They arrived shortly after she called and wheeled him out of his apartment underneath a gray wool blanket into a beautiful early May afternoon. The smell of freshly cut grass , the aroma of the honey- suckle filled the air. Spring had finally arrived. There are cycles to everything. To everything there is a season. A time to live and a time to die. All that remained of the dead man was his apartment filled with clutter, and a past due balance on his rent. It was the only proof that he had ever even been here.
We are what we leave behind. We are the people that we influence. We are the people that we amuse. We are the people that we hurt. We are the people that we comfort. We are the people that we love. We are what we leave behind. We are a trail of the dead, because the dead have left their mark.
We all have to die. Ben Franklin said that the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. In order to live we must die. Pretty simple shit.Death is the other side of the coin, we all know that it is there. We know that if we flip the coin over, tails will always show up. We don't think about it, and for the most part that is a good thing. On the other hand not acknowledging death as part of the life process is ignorant.When it is time to cash in our chips, we are nothing more than memories. We are not a bank account, we are not a house or a car......we are not things."

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal". ----- Albert Pikehis