death | RAFrenzy

Uncle

I’ve tried to make my presence here as free of my personal trials and tribulations as I can make it (some of my diary entries notwithstanding). But sometimes I just can’t forget what’s going on around me and have fun here. For almost two weeks now I have been grappling with some things that make me glad there is a God; otherwise, I think I really would have gone insane. When I got home from Comic-Con, a family member was suffering from some serious health issues. I wasn’t home a day until I found out there was a murder/suicide of a couple we knew. This is a small community which means things like this always affect our household whether we know the people personally or not. We happened to have known these people, and the wife was our family doctor’s nurse for years and years, so we not only knew her personally but as someone we saw anytime we went to the doctor.

About the time I got used to the shock of this, there was a death of one of our kids’ close friends. A day later we got word on the shooting in Aurora, and yes, we know someone whose relative was injured, and the person we know had kids at Columbine High School when that shooting happened! A couple of days ago we got word that the daughter of some very close friends of ours almost died by going off into a canyon and ending upside down in the river a few miles from our house. It is a miracle she is alive and not permanently injured although she does have some serious injuries. And there is more, but I think you get the idea that I just haven’t been in the mood to talk about Comic-Con.

For all of you who have sent me email or a personal message, thank you. They are all very sweet and mean a great deal to me.

Give me some time and I’ll get back in snark mode, but I just can’t today.

Take care,
Frenz

July 29, 2012
Categories: Timeout . Tags: death, harsh realities, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 35 Comments

A Rabid Fan?

I didn’t capitalize the A in rabid, but I’m sure some of you already saw it as a capital, or it jarred you that it wasn’t. No, this isn’t a piece about the grammatical odyssey of being a Richard Armitage fan. But I am going to talk about something that hits me from time to time like a little slap in the face.

Being intensely curious about every cussed thing, it was only natural that I started reading the New Zealand newspapers, and I feel certain I will read them long after RA has departed from the Kiwis. In the meantime, I am affected strongly when I read there has been a plane crash near Auckland. My immediate response, “Oh no, I hope it wasn’t Richard, or anyone associated with the movie!” That isn’t me. Normally I would feel for the people involved, probably say an earnest prayer for their loved ones, and then move on. But the visceral response startled me, and the few times it’s happened have bugged me. I make a lot of jokes about being up the CWS, but an almost knee jerk reaction like this bothers me a little.

I guess the point of this post is personal therapy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not super worried about my behavior. If I were, I probably would never admit this. But I am curious enough about it to examine myself and publicly.

It could just be that I’ve been surrounded by so much death the last several years that I’ve become jumpy. And my encounters with it just never seem to stop. A few days ago I found out a good friend of mine has about a month to live. I went to see her yesterday, and thankfully, it was a wonderful visit. She is off of all of her treatments and is only on a little bit of morphine. Her alertness was a bit stunning, and she and I and SO had a great chat. When we stood up to leave her, he did something he never does. He said to her, “Can I give you a kiss?” and then he bent down and hugged her a bit and kissed her temple.

On the way out, I said, “I have never seen you do that before. What prompted you?”

“She’s the kind of person who can receive a kiss like that — a gesture of love from a friend. Besides, you know I’ve always been a big fan of hers.”

Yeah, I knew that. I’ve been a fan too, and I’m going to miss her terribly. I also feel for the loved ones of whomever died in that plane crash. It hurts to lose someone you care about.

April 1, 2012
Categories: SO . Tags: Celebrity Worship Scale, CWS, death, friends, New Zealand, perspective, Richard Armitage, tragedy . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

Whitney Houston, May She Be at Peace at Last

Whitney Houston is dead at 48. I can’t stop shaking my head.

edit: I have to add this video even if it doesn’t seem to exactly fit the subject at hand. Whitney Houston is the ONLY one who sang this and it was enjoyable. The rest of the time I can feel the masochist who wrote the music laughing at us all when we sit through it.

February 11, 2012
Categories: Timeout . Tags: death, music, Musicilove, Whitney Houston . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 12 Comments

Timeout for Norway

I started to call this post “What the hell?!” but out of respect for the dead, I couldn’t bring myself to do it; however, that was one of my first thoughts when I heard about the tragedies in Norway. Now given that I just said hell, and I’ve said other “choice words” on this blog, I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I said I am a Christian, and in fact, do have a love for the Almighty. Nevertheless, it’s true, and thankfully, He is gracious and I’m still a work in progress. Of course I bring this up because I’ve read the killer in Norway is part of a fundamentalist Christian group. I’m not sure what they believe, but whatever prompted the killing spree doesn’t in any way jibe with what I believe, and as a Christian, I vehemently denounce what was perpetrated. It was wrong. But enough about that, I don’t want this to be a diatribe about Christians for or against them. I want to pay my respects to those who died and to those who loved them.

Life is precious, and despite the fun I sometimes have on this blog, I cannot go blithely along while something obliterates it like this. Having been around a lot of death and having counseled people who have lost loved ones, I feel keenly for those people and especially those who lost their children. No matter how many times I am around someone who has lost a child, I still cannot process that horror. It is certainly something that I’ve asked the Lord about many times. For now it’s obvious to me that sin in the world kills people, steals precious things from them and certainly destroys innocence, and this is such a painful example of how it lays waste. Since this is beginning to feel like a sermon, I’m going to stop here and just say that I’m so sorry for the suffering and my heartfelt prayers and sympathy go to those in Norway.

edit: As for Amy Winehouse, I have no words but to say I’m terribly sad just as I was when Kurt Cobain died or Heath Ledger or any number of fairly young people who were unhappy and died too early.

July 23, 2011
Categories: Timeout . Tags: current events, death, hatred, mourning, Norway, Oslo, shootings . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 12 Comments

Is That Thing On? Spoilers

If you have never watched Spooks and know absolutely nothing about it, there are spoilers ahead.

The Spooks Fan Blog has a guest blogger today. Will from the Spooks Forum is giving his take on how Spooks should end. What? It’s going to end? The next season isn’t the series finale is it?! No! Okay, I realize Will didn’t say that, but someone is going to get that impression, so you need to get ready for that on the Spooks Fan Blog. Most people only half read anyway. Shame since we’re all so eloquent, and seriously, I do think Will is eloquent about his view of realism. No fantasy for him. Apparently he embraces realism with a vengeance, and in his reality, the hero dies. Yeah, Will’s real name is Goodtime Charlie ;-) No wonder he likes Spooks since in Spooksland the hero dies. Oh, you didn’t know that? That’s why I put ‘Spoilers’ in the title of this post.

For all of you in the U.S. who are reading this and don’t know anything about this show but disregarded my spoiler message anyway and are assigning a negative connotation to the word ‘Spooks,’ just know that it’s slang for spy, and also, the show is called MI-5 in the states for the very reason Spooks would probably be misconstrued as something else. (I may have topped my record for a lengthy sentence). That’s hopefully as close as I ever come to social commentary or politics on this blog.

Where was I? To my knowledge the show has been aired on both BBCA and PBS, but I think BBCA has now dropped it. That’s okay since most of us don’t get BBCA but almost all of us in the U.S. get PBS. Oh, and you DO NOT have to start at the beginning of the series to enjoy it, but I highly recommend it. Matthew MacFadyen is the star of the first couple of seasons, and he is wonderful. Now I’m assuming if you’re new to this show and you’re reading my blog, it’s because you’re looking for something about Matthew MacFadyen or Richard Armitage. Both are great in this show, but I especially love Richard. Hey, what else did you expect me to say since this whole blog is dedicated to the guy? Well, it’s dedicated to him and to my need to wax on and on about a lot of crap that really doesn’t matter. Oh, some of it matters but a lot of it doesn’t.

I’m done, so go check out Will’s piece, and here are a few pictures to send you on your way. Will would be proud — except the hero overcomes in this scene.