A Blogger's Goodbye

I was out checking some of my links in my sidebar, and came across an entry by E.E. Probably not someone that many of you know, but anyhoo... She posted an amazing link of a blogger's goodbye. Not your run-of-the-mill, I'm-tired-of-blogging, I've-been-found-out sort of goodbye. This is the goodbye of Maj. Andrew Olmsted who was sent to Iraq, and had a friend post it in the event of his death. Which has apparently happened. In doing some quick searching, he was fairly well-known among many bloggers. The outpouring of hundreds upon hundreds of comments on another site that reported it is a testament to the number of readers that knew him.

It's a good read. And bone-chilling. It's not a rant, or political. Just a man's thoughts about his final thoughts. He reflects on his choices, and talks about his strengths and weaknesses. He sort of predicts how he would die. And he talks about his wife. And blogging. And other things.

Other than writing a will, I don't think any of us really reflect on our lives like he has, or have the opportunity (obviously) to share it with those that he knew would be most affected by his life, both online and real. Perhaps it seems natural to anyone who is about to engage in a life-threatening experience to write something like this. Musicians rarely have to face that sort of thing. I imagine the rest of us will read it, think about what a wonderful idea it is, but never get around to doing anything similar. Sort of like writing a will. There's always "tomorrow". We'll get around to it, eventually. I'm too busy to do it right now. Funny how this came to my attention exactly one year after last year's events...

Check it out here. I think you'll be glad you did.