I am trying to get a handle on the death thing.

• I am not a Christian.
• I lean toward Tom Paines' Deist views.
• There is a god.
• He/She/It does not interfere with us.
• Benign neglect.
• Combined with Darwins views on evolution.

This is not a powerful or over riding belief system as far as beliefs go. I will not try to convert anyone to my belief melange.

What I am finding that is comforting is to know that I and all my sisters and brother have parts of my father in us. We are like DNA cocktails. Mixtures of our parents DNA and teachings (because DNA does not explain all). It sounds a little cold written like this, but substitute love for DNA and it softens it a little. The DNA that constructed me is a physical thing. That DNA came from my father and mother. They are both a part of me, physically, I am their construct. I have passed these physical parts of them on to my children and eventually they will pass them onto their offspring.

So what am I trying to say here? Though I have lost my father, his body has quit and will be laid to rest. He is effectively immortal regardless of any religious dogma. He is shared among his brothers and sisters and through them their offspring. He is shared among his children in combination with my mother, so Dad and Mom will always be together in a more real sense than any religious tale can concoct.

So far this has only dealt with the physical, not how he touched others. My father was a good man. A moral man. Not a religious man. He was not a perfect man. It was important for him to try and do the right thing. He did not have to have a sacred book to tell him right from wrong. He would paddle you if you needed it (not beat...a couple of swats on the butt to get your attention). Generally you would be more ashamed to have let him down than hurt by the swats.

In other words he was a human being that got along in this world. Did most of what he wanted. Was happy most of the time.

I loved him and miss him already.