Losing One of Our Own

The news of Tim Russert's untimely death yesterday afternoon hit me harder than it had any right to. I never knew the man. I only watched Meet the Press a couple dozen times over the past two decades. I didn't even tune into his primary/election coverage on NBC and MSNBC. I'm more of a PBS Newshour guy.

But, man, when I flipped on the news last night during dinner and heard about Russert's passing, I teared up.

It would be facile to quote Donne and chalk my reaction up to the universal truth that "Each man's death depletes me." But the truth of that statement doesn't make it a compelling lived reality.

Just in the last month, America has lost some giants of our culture. R.I.P. Bo Diddley, Jim McKay, and Yves St. Laurent (French, but still). They'll be missed, but their passing didn't bring me down.

So I got to thinking about other celebrities' deaths that I had felt personally. There have only been a few, with the greatest impact having been made by Caroll O'Conor's passing a few years ago.

What I realized some time last night -- and I'll admit it isn't the greatest piece of cosmic insight since Archimedes discovered his principle -- was that I would mourn Russert as I had O'Connor because Russert might as well have been a member of my family.

He was working class, Irish, Catholic, charitable, intelligent, and constructively angry with the world and its workings. I know I'm on the razor's edge of turning this reflection into a misguided discussion of how awesome I am, but everything Russert and O'Connor were is what my family members are, as well. Heck, O'Connor looks enough like a Lamb that I'll say he secretly was one of our tribe.

Our tribe lost another of our own yesterday. Not just a famous member, though, but one who embodied all of our best talents and dreams.

Thanks for showing us how it's done, Mr. Russert.

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Now to lighten the mood, here's the real story of Archimedes discovery.

One day, while slipping into the tub, it occurred to Archimedes that the level of the bath water rose when he got in it. Knowing that the apparent increase in volume couldn't be explained by the addition of water, he reasoned that the water must be rising in proportion to the weight of the object placed in it (i.e., his body).

Extremely pleased with this deduction, Archimedes ran out into the street, yelling, "Eureka! Eureka!"

After a few minutes, a friend stopped him and said, "Hey, Arch, I don't know why you're yelling at us. You're the one needs a bath."