Today wasn't really spent as I would have chosen if I were in charge of the world. The temp topped 80 and it would've been a great work-on-your-tan day out in the yard. Instead, I put on makeup and real clothes and went to a funeral.

Jason died a week ago in San Diego. His last service and final rest came today in the tiny West Tennessee town where he grew up. We're talkin' funeral home next to Dollar General, okay? His amazing 22 year old life was shared in bits and pieces by the folks who came to pay their respects with tears and stories. He was born in Turkey to an unwed med student who had a fling with her professor. She was so ashamed that she denied the pregnancy and didn't eat for 9 months, prompting the doctors to tell his prospective adoptive parents that he would most likely be in ill health when pickup time came. His birth mother's teeth fell out from the malnutrition of the lie.

Shirley didn't care whether he was a genius or a slobbering idiot....she wanted this kid with all of her heart. And so it went. He was adopted into a working class family in rural West Tennessee where he thrived as a homegrown boy that everybody loved. Smart as hell. Athletic. Appreciative for his miracle last minute save from a Turkish orphanage.

Eulogies for Jason were given by the paunchy old elementary school principal who scouted him for football early on and a college classmate from UTK. The preacher was mercifully brief with his promises of heavenly mansions. His comment at the beginning was this: " We could all say a prayer and AMEN right now and our job would be done just by your presence here today." That made me think. About how small the world really is.

His best friends Nick and Jack and Lane and a few others cried like babies and did what real men do when the going gets tough...they stuck by their buddy. Somehow that gives me comfort in a world where everything is all messed up.

It helps me to keep the faith.