An overload of a day

Well, I think I'll start backwards. As I was leaving for my night class, HD came home, and told me that Bill wrote his own obituary. In it, he requested that half of his ashes be spread on top of the green roof pavilion at the Heritage Museum.

The choice of the venue makes perfect sense - he was the Museum's greatest champion, and was instrumental in the pavilion's existence. This hit me like a brick, because it made his death real. His obituary is rather fantastic: well-written, and funny. He was, to his last moments, completely with it.

Prior to this, I had a rather surreal conversation with a student, whose self-perception is VASTLY different than what I see. She thinks she comes across as a know-it-all, resented by her peers; I see a driven and motivated woman, who has clear career goals, and is squeezing every drop out of her education. I have never spotted a hint of resentment from anyone when she speaks up in class. Which one is real???

Add to it some surreal conversations with other folks, including my beautiful friend, past office-mate, and a classmate, A. A. has spent the last 2 or so years coming to grips with her adult diagnosis of the magic trio: obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety, and depression. I watch, helplessly, from the sidelines as she struggles, knowing all too well there is nothing I can do. I have seen it before. The good news is that the "before" individual is doing phenomenally well, so I guess there is hope for A., too...

I am rambling... Just one last question, a seeming theme of the day for my dealings with the living:  Why do people not see themselves as others see them??? Is there such thing as an objective reality of human condition??? Why is it so much easier to be compassionate and kind to others than to oneself???  OK, so three questions. You get the picture.

I am all peopled out.