Every Last Word

I purchased a book a few months ago that I finally started reading this weekend. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jim Sheeler, "Obit" is a collection of narrative obituaries celebrating the extraordinary lives of ordinary folks.

As a journalist, I can think of no piece of editorial writing that carries more responsibility for truth than the final words penned in an obituary. Sheeler is clearly masterful in his ability to find great stories and craft words into sentences to form paragraphs that truly immortalize lives lived and then completed. I have only read six or seven pieces and every one is a small portrait painted with Sheeler's delicate and expressive stroke to celebrate a giant, although sometimes quiet, existence. Every one and everyone is important. It is amazing what lessons can be learned about life from writing born of death.

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