Shoot! I was cruising my friends’ facebook pages, checking out latest photos, laughing over the running jokes that never get old – and then I found it. Facebook, in its wisdom, suggested I re-connect with Tracy Young. “Good idea,” I thought. Tracy’s mom died in December. I hadn’t written on his wall since December 20, when I sent my condolences. When I clicked on his page, I started to type a “Hey how are you…” message. Then I noticed the post below mine read, “I miss you, Tracy” and the one below that, “You will be missed greatly.” and below that…(well, some bonehead started a Tweety Bird Pillow fight with Tracy) But below that, and below that… I realized people were expressing sorrow over his death. Wow. So much can happen in a month.
Tracy loved Jesus. He sought to model his life after Christ and I am confident that he is rejoicing right now with his Momma and His Savior. Of that I have no doubt. (not even a smidge of wonder)
What this made me pause and wonder about is, what happens to all of our oh-so-personal social networking contact when we die? His last Twitter tweet was: “After tennis shoe bomber we had to take off our shoes in line. After underwear bomber, do we have to…?” I chuckled out loud. That thought will remain in cyberspace unanswered. How long do these things hang out there?
He “followed” me on Twitter…Will my tweets just keep showing up in an inbox that will never be read? Will people click on his name and, not realizing that he passed away, just figure he got ‘too lazy’ or ‘too busy’ to make any more humorous quips? For how long might my blog posts wind up on an email server that no one will download? Will people who never actually go onto his facebook profile to connect continue to invite him to Farmville and to join them in pillow fights?
It is bizarre to me, and has me feeling really saddened. A couple of Tracy’s final status updates were:
(from December 26) “A few neighbors already have their Christmas trees at the curb…couldn’t wait at least through the weekend, Scrooge?”
(from December 25) “Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends. Merry X-mas to my non-Christian friends. Happy Holidays to my enemies.”
He was a funny dude. He wrote a couple of books and we used a quote of his in Radical Love…Forever Changed. I’m so glad we did. Anyways – not sure what point I have in writing tonight, other than a life lesson I will try hard to live by is to not wait for facebook to tell me to reconnect with someone.
Peace.
