On a fucking stairmaster.

Today I recieved some depressing news. The corporation counsel whom I'd gone back and forth with over the past two and a half years died in his sleep. He was a year away from retirement. I know this because he told me the day before.

It's always such a shock to hear about the sudden death of someone you see every week, especially when that person was healthy and relatively young. In hindsight, the suddenness of it all makes things seem pointless-that someone could spend his whole life working and then die too soon in an entirely ordinary way. In season three of the wire, Jimmy McNulty heard about the death of Detective Ray Cole after collapsing on a stairmaster. All McNulty could say was "On a fucking stairmaster."

I never really understood that scene until today. Life is unpredictable, and being a good person doesn't prevent death from keeling you over way too young. All of the things you put off will never get done. You look at the lives of these people and wonder if they were happy, hoping the answer is yes.

I'm sad to hear that he's gone, but glad that I have the opportunity to evaluate my own life. I think we all need these wake up calls now and again to realize that life doesn't care about how much we want things. If we don't get it done in time, it won't happen. Most people live their lives without living at all. I'm thankful that my last lesson from this man (He pwned me in the courtroom several times) is such an important one.