An Integrated Life

I was going to write something about the outed and ousted Senator Larry Craig but a quick Google search revealed there were already some 23 million references to the incident (if you don’t know about the incident in question, try a Google or Yahoo or MSN search; you’ll catch up). One blogger even preempted my clever (but alas, not very original) post title – “His Own Private Idaho.” Nothing left to say, which is just as well. While most of the public and all of the media outlets speculate on Craig’s double life, I want to reflect on the singularly well-lived life of my friend Ed, which ended tragically a week ago when he was killed in a motorcycle accident. Ed was a doer. He sold construction equipment, traveled the world, ran marathons and raced dirt bikes. He was a family man, by all accounts a friend and mentor to his kids, someone who remained deeply in love with his wife of 23 years. He was funny and generous and open to trying new things and new ideas. His energy and enthusiasm were addictive. Ed had a deeply spiritual side as well. He studied yoga, decided to become an instructor and had recently completed certification. He dreamed of living on what he told a friend would be his own personal Walden’s Pond. His was to have been a truly integrated life. Ed was on the road to a higher level of awareness as a means of achieving a degree of physical, mental and spiritual well-being that would make someone we all thought of as a good guy an even better one.