A final lesson

I don’t know what to say today. I just know it can’t be business as usual for most of us. Not yet. Not today.

It’s hard to know how to talk about this loss.

My grief feels selfish when I think about his family, about everything they’ve already endured.

I don’t understand how our world works, not today.

Doesn’t it feel like there should be a pause button we can press, at least today?

Something to stop all the political rancor, the silly bickering, the stupid meetings, the firings of good people trying to do good jobs for people who don’t care, who see numbers where faces are?

Shouldn’t we all stop, every one of us, and think about how we are living our lives?

Here’s what we can learn today…

Family matters more than anything, so work to live, not the other way around.

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

We can’t be separated from the way we choose to treat others. Basic goodness matters, despite the names and faces that are in our industry’s spotlight most days.

There are no shortcuts to character. We are measured and accountable every single day.

And…

Not one of us will get out alive, so thank God for grace bestowed, unearned forgiveness; for love, precious and undying, and for the promise of an eternity shared without pain, and without tears.

Today’s lesson, from one of Radio’s greatest programmers, isn’t about radio.

And Rusty would be fine with that.