A Friend Died This Week

If I had a list of ten favorite people with whom to have a conversation, John Workman would be near the top of the list. We had many conversations during the years we lived in Little Rock where we became friends with John and Liz, his wife of 64 years .  We talked during Saturday morning bike rides, over lunch downtown, traveling together in Central America, hearty laughter over meals with Liz and John at their home, and much more....  

It's always good to have a conversation with someone who has a great sense of humor besides being a good listener and a person of deep political and spiritual insights, - you get the picture.   

John was a writer and journalist, besides a Methodist minister.  He was the religion editor at the Arkansas Gazette for over a dozen years.   Many readers would pick up their paper on Saturday mornings and go first to John's column.  Most of the articles didn't seem like they were specifically about "religion", but while reading them you might find yourself laughing out loud and afterward you had something to think about and savor --- about enjoying life, about meaning, and about spiritual and moral values. 

He compiled and published several books with collections of those articles plus other essays.  In his last book, "Travels in a Tree House: Essays on Life and Other Joys" - University of Arkansas Press, 2001, he wrote the following in the Foreword:

So many have said it.  Life is a journey.  A voyage. A Venture.  Life --- at times a pleasant stroll, at times a storm-tossed passage, at times perhaps even a pilgrimage.  But always life is journey.  Always life is adventure. 

Whatever words may be employed to characterize its marvel and mystery, life is movement.  From first moment to last breath, to live is to move.  To live is to travel, to saunter, to run. To live is to grow, to change. To live is to know both joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. To live is to slip -- perhaps even to slide, glide, stumble or be pushed against all resistance -- finally into death itself.  From start to finish, from cradle to grave, to live is to move on. 

We will, John, we will move on, but many will miss you!!