But in certain cases, we’re expected to extend that — not necessarily deserved — courtesy to the living.
Suicide at 14: ‘I Have Racked My Brain Trying to Understand’
“I’ve had five years to sit and think about it. I have racked my brain trying to understand the reason.”
Gee, I can’t imagine what pressures the globetrotter/hockey player/honor student/shorts-producing aspiring filmmaker/would-be Eagle Scout* was trying to escape.
To me, it was telling that his favorite thing was to go to Fenway Park and watch the Red Sox — i.e.- someone else — doing something.
Did he push himself? Or was he trying to meet someone else’s unrealistic-for-a-child expectations?
Push yourself, Ball. Rack your brain a little harder.
* The average age for Eagle Scouts is over seventeen. This kid was reportedly one step away three years ahead of that. My scouting days are long past, but it used to be that the final push for Eagle was pretty much a full time job in itself.
Random Acts of Gibberish 
Only made Star rank before I left the BSA due to atheism. They didn’t kick me out, it was a personal realization that since I wasn’t reverent and had no duty to any god that it would be dishonorable to stay. It was a bit after my Four in the USAF that I realized I had no duty to country either. My duty is to friends and family (there is some overlap). Friends come first. Family is growing. My nephew’s junior wife is scheduled for induced labor today. Bear, you didn’t meet Joanna, she signed on with Joe and Tara a few months after our visit. It was six kids and a big bump then, it’ll be ten in the next 24 hours. I chose not to breed, my baby sister’s illegitimate son is making sure the surname continues. The bump became Rebecca. Cute kid. At three years, cute is a verb, a very active verb.
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