If you follow the popular music scene, perhaps you heard, last week, about the passing of Randy Meisner, one of the founding members of the Seventies band the Eagles.  He was 77 years old.  Cause of death?  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    Though I enjoyed some of the Eagles' music, I was never a die hard fan.  Nonetheless, after a friend sent me a video of Meisner singing his signature song, "Take it to the Limit," I found reason to be sad.  In it, he sings of dreams, of destiny, of time:  a paean to the wonder and fleetingness of human existence.  It's a testament to the profound longing for meaning in an otherwise unfathomable life.

    We who live in the affluent West, particularly those who, like the members of the Eagles, enjoy tremendous wealth, have not really found what makes life significant.  So we wrestle, we struggle; we seek and search.  We are always looking for a way through this bewildering existence in which we find ourselves.  Although it is indeed a glorious existence, its glory ironically rests in the tantalizing frustration that makes us uniquely human: a longing for meaning.

    Rest well, Randy Meisner.

    By the way, I'll be traveling next week.  Talk to you in a couple of weeks.  Thanks for reading!