Today I attended to a celebration of the life of one of our lab users,
who died in a skiing accident some weeks ago, in his early thirties
and after having just been married for some weeks.
I remember him, but I never had a longer discussion with him -- it
just never worked out, during the moments we met in the lab, as we
both were always busy. He was a rather quiet (even shy, as I learnt
today) but very caring, polite and considerate person, and apparently
also very smart. One of his sisters read from some of the emails
he sent his family while working abroad as a teacher, and in which he
talked about his idea that death does not really exist, but that the
distinction is rather between conscious and unconscious existence.
And what people call dying is "just" the passing from the conscious
to the unconscious state. That seems really profound to me; I always
shared the same feeling, but I never put it into such concise words.
Not only I learnt this today, but I was also reminded that one should
never postpone anything to be said or done to somebody else, because
it could be too late all of a sudden, and one never knows in advance
what kind of gems are among the souls we cross on our paths.
I am very grateful to his family that I could share some of their
very intimate and moving moments, and at least get a glimpse into
that fine man's life and mind. My feelings are with them, especially
with his siblings, mother and wife.
