I wanted to talk about it but I didn't want to write about it, so here you go. I didn't plan or pre-meditate any of this so there are obviously a lot of ums and background noises and what not but I think that's part of the natural vibe that is important here. That said, please hit me with any and all comments concerns and advice that occur to you.
And, as is the purpose of this, tell me your thoughts on reacting to tragedy and death both personally and not (I didn't know the guy well of course), the coincidences that occur in life, and pose any questions you'd like. I'll call this story "Samsara for Sean."
Subscribe (and contribute!) to #significantstoriesbypablo to tune in to one-take stories that lingered in the mind and needed to be reflected on.
As I have never encountered death of someone even remotely close to me, I wouldn't know how I would react to such an event. But in any case, I think I would read and re-read this passage to myself and share it to those touched by the tragedy :
Epicurus - Letter to Menoeceus (http://classics.mit.edu/Epicurus/menoec.html)
"Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the person who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation.
Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer. But in the world, at one time people shun death as the greatest of all evils, and at another time choose it as a respite from the evils in life. The wise person does not deprecate life nor does he fear the cessation of life. The thought of life is no offense to him, nor is the cessation of life regarded as an evil. And even as people choose of food not merely and simply the larger portion, but the more pleasant, so the wise seek to enjoy the time which is most pleasant and not merely that which is longest."
About the implication of death (leaving the mother with the little one), it's just really, really hard.
If you plan on recording other stories, I would like to see if you can implement a transcript. As a non-native english speaker, it would let me check if I understand everything correctly.