Uncle Kurt

Amanda and I returned from our trip to find out that her uncle Kurt, who stayed back from the wedding because he had just started a new job, passed away last Sunday. Yes, it was the Sunday of the wedding, for which his wife, Cathy, organized the flowers. She didn't find out that Kurt had died until Tuesday night when she came home to a policeman and her pastor waiting for her. Kurt was 55 and had recently begun jogging again. He had been jogging when he took a massive heart attack and passed away, alone, out by an old scout camp. The family was with us in Colorado, that is accept for his daughter Amber, who was teaching ESL in Nepal, and his other daughter Victoria, who, I believe, was in summer classes. None of the four children were there to say goodbye to their father, nor should they have expected that he would not be there when they returned. His death has been a giant shock to all of the family. Kurt will be missed.

It is the missing that I find most moving now, and I am not around his home, where his touch, presence, and intentions effected everything. It is this his lack that changes their world. I am off to the airport to pick up Amber and visit with the family.

In a presentation at the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Gadamer once said that the thing-in-itself is only fully known when it is gone from the environment in which it was known. Loss gives a thing a sense of completeness. Kurt was not a thing. He was a human being, but I think that I do perceive the form of Kurt more vibrantly now then at any point in his life.

One thing I will remember about Kurt was when he took me under his wing during a footwashing ceremony at his local SDA church. It was quite touching, and i was glad to enter into such a humble ritual with the man. I am proud to say my feet were washed by Kurt.