"Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people."
My mind feels small today, as I come to terms with the deaths of two people whose lives touched mine. Joseph Feeley and Andrew Breitbart had nothing in common that I know of, except that they both had an impact on me and they both died this week.
Joseph was only 23 years old, and valiantly proclaimed the glory of his Savior Jesus Christ even as he lost his long battle with the cancer that ravaged his body. His family was praying for a miracle that never came, or at least not in the way they hoped. Joseph IS healed and free from pain now, they just wanted it to happen here on earth instead of in heaven. Joseph's life, short as it was, made a difference in our world. People loved and admired him, both before and after he got sick. Instead of taking any of that credit for himself, he continually pointed others toward his loving Father in heaven, and lives were changed.
Breitbart was a family man in his 40's who spent his days exposing the hypocrisy and lies of America's political left wing. He was a pioneer of the blogosphere and using the internet to instantaneously disseminate information. He worked in a highly charged environment, where people's passions were inflamed. His friends called him fearless, and his enemies were less kind. By exposing frauds he informed people, and attitudes were changed.
I could write much more about these men, and I'm sure that others are doing so right now. What I am left with is a sense of loss, a sense that somehow the world is a bit dimmer today without the passion-fueled lights of Joseph and Andrew. No other person will ever fill the unique place of Karen and Joe's beloved son, or the intense determination of Breitbart.com.
Those of us left behind to mourn their passing must decide our own legacy. Will the world be a better place because we were here? What is our passion, and are we living it each day?
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