Life - Goodbye to Richard Pryor

I remember one year when I was a little ankle biter (About five or six), and I was watching the Academy Awards with my grandparents. And it came to the part of the show where they remembered those from the entertainment industry who'd passed away that year. And I didn't know any of them. But my grandparents both commented that "...it was a shame to see so-and-so had gone this year". And I specifically remember thinking "One day, I'll be watching TV and saying those same things".

As of late there has been deaths amongst people I've known or known of for a large part of my life. And it's all very real now. Personally I'm very afraid of death. I'll be trying to fall asleep sometimes and I'll just think "I'm going to die some day. Some time I just won't be here any more". And my heart starts racing, and eventually I chill out and fall asleep.

So Richard Pryor has been taken from us. He's made me laugh on more than a few occations. It's funny. So much of his comedy is racially based, and yet during his peak (And admittedly I was young at the time), the race side of his comedy was always transparent to me, like I couldn't understand it. And I don't mean because I'm not black. I mean because I don't see any difference between someone who's black and someone who's white. Unfortunately I don't think humanity is evolving quickly enough to overcome rasism. It will be with us for the forseable future. But anyway. Goodbye Richard. Thank you for the laughs. It is the thing I prize most from entertainers beyond all else. Laughing is the best thing in the whole world.

And to those out there reading this blog. Having lost a family member recently, I'll say one thing. Take a second to appreciate the people around you. Your family and your friends. The vicar at my father-in-law's funeral said:

When we are on our death bed, the important things aren't the money we've made. They're not the things we've bought. It's the people we've known and loved. You don't say "Bring me my plasma telly" or "my expensive car". You say "I want to see my brothers and my sisters and my friends". Appreciate the time you have with your friends and family. Don't waste it.