<p>"We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.</p>
<p>It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats."</p>
<p>I read her words, and could feel the tears welling in my eyes. What a beautiful, sensitive young woman! Such an enormous loss to her family and the world.</p>
<p>Wow, it was written like a commencement speech. Sounds like her life was very exciting and so full of promise. It is good to remember that life is not a dress rehearsal and we all have to live it as best we can to have no regrets even if it ends sooner than we hope or expect. Tuesdays with Morrie deals well with the subject.</p>
<p>It is so sad. Local news says her boyfriend, who was driving, fell asleep at the wheel. My heart really goes out to him; he will have to live with this the rest of his life.</p>
<p>This young woman’s death – and the writings now being shared all over the Internet – have touched people all over the world. </p>
<p>But at the same time, I feel that there is something missing from the story.</p>
<p>Marina Keegan died in a crash that was apparently caused by the driver of the car she was riding in falling asleep at the wheel – in the middle of the afternoon. How did something like that happen? </p>
<p>If it can be done without violating anyone’s privacy, I would like to understand more about the circumstances of the crash. There may be lessons that we can learn from it that would help to prevent similar tragedies. And that would add to the already impressive legacy that Marina Keegan has left behind her.</p>
<p>Feeling sleepy during a long drive is not that uncommon. They fall asleep on the road the same way students fall asleep in class in the middle of the afternoon. DS’s close friend and several other students went on a trip to Florida last year where the driver fell asleep and his friend was killed. Just plain sad.</p>
<p>After reading “The Opposite of Loneliness,” I realize that there have been very few times in life that I’ve had that feeling. (How sad to spend most of life searching for a sense of “community” and rarely finding it. . .)
How wise of this young woman to recognize and appreciate the gift of those good times.
Offering a prayer for her family.</p>