I like seeing FB posts of things that friends find worthy of sharing. I interpret these chosen life events to be significant or else they wouldn't be posted...Maybe they helped shape us. Maybe in some way, they helped us become who we are today. (Then again, it could just be really funny and it's almost Friday...Hard to say.) But to me, things like this, simple as they seem, lend perspective, and personally, I'm all about reflecting.
In this same sweet spirit of reflective and contemplative, I caught up last week with a friend I hadn't seen since childhood. Back in the day I knew his sister slightly better. Mostly I knew their mom as she was one of my kindergarden teachers. He, on the other hand, was the kind of kid brother 11 and 12-year old girls try to avoid. But thanks to Facebook, I caught a glimpse of a familiar name and a face I vaguely recognized. In addition to wanting to know what made his tomatoes grow better, bigger and faster than mine, I was kinda curious about posts referencing some sort of ordeal that clearly had changed his life.
We decided to meet and share gardening tips. He was gracious enough to spot me a few of his red tomatoes while I waited (and waited and still wait) for my green ones to ripen. And while not exactly Southern Belle proper, the journalist in me kicked in when I had to confess I hadn't a clue what had happened to him. Lebanon's a small town and like most small towns, people usually know these things. But yes, while home, I've been off in my own little gardening world, so much so that I've been blissfully ignorant of anything resembling grapevine gossip...(snippets from which might've prepared me for his answer to my very blunt question of "I'm sorry, but What exactly happened to you?")
In medical terms, he died. (He'd had a stroke, which is frightening as he's a very young man --young being anything younger than me.) While his reflections on the ordeal were interesting enough (mainly because he survived) what REALLY fascinated me was the time he spent outside of his body during the ordeal...an event otherwise known as an NDE or Near Death Experience.
As for me, I was familiar with the subject--not because I've experienced it personally, but because 20 years of my interviewing life had been spent covering crazy topics like this.
For those less familiar, the phrase NDE was coined by Dr. Raymond Moody, author of the book "Life After Life" ...which came out in the 70s.
In the 80s, while producing and soon thereafter co-hosting the metaphysical talk show "Beyond Reason" (created by Teddy Bart) Dr. Moody was one of the first guests I got to talk to on the subject, and one who became one of our regulars. Thanks to Dr. Moody, a whole new realm of interest was introduced to the mainstream public on things like life after life and what happens when we die... who we'll see first....after life curiosities, the likes of which led numerous other researchers to follow suit.
I'm not sure just how many interviews we did on this topic over the course of 20 years.... But suffice it to say, there were a lot. It's a universal topic--one most everyone is curious about (that being, "What happens when we die?")
Out of respect for my friend who was both candid and forthcoming in sharing what happened to him, today's TBT isn't about pictures. Instead, it's about the topic itself...A topic I ran across in one of our later Beyond Reason interviews. This show itself, I had all but forgotten, but her message, is timeless...(That being...we do not die. Our very being survives that thing called "death" ~ Call me crazy, but I find things like this worthy of exploring, then again...It's TBT...I was in an exploratory mood going in~)
So in the spirit of all things "TBT" I share this link:
http://beyondreason.com/mp3s/archangel.mp3
Here's to TBT's everywhere.
Thanks FB, for reacquainting old friends. Though I wish to heck you'd quit changing your templates and your policies, I for one am benefitting from catching up with old friends. So I'll do my best not to complain when you keep changing (and changing and changing) the rules....
To my other FB friends out there ~
Enjoy~
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