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I haven't had the strength or guts to address the sorrow I feel in the aftermath of losing newsman and family man Tim Russert.

My heart broke as I watched Tom Brokaw make the annoucement on MSNBC Friday afternoon. No. Not Tim. Not NOW. As much as he loved his family and friends, clearly his passion for politics and this year’s election cycle in general was what drove him…

… and to think that he won’t be here to guide us through this insanity and see it to its conclusion this November is unfathomable.

58 years young. Man, life is not fair at all. Tim Russert exuded life. I pray he died a happy man, despite leaving way, way too early.

He told America’s story and now we will have to seek other voices to make it all make sense

Go get 'em, TR.

May your family and friends one day soon find great comfort and peace knowing how blessed they were to have known you. May I confess that I, too, feel blessed to have crossed paths with him in this lifetime?

To Maureen and Luke and Big Russ: Thank you all so very, very much for sharing Tim's life with us. I will never forget him. As I type these words, I see his smiling eyes on the television screen, aired during one of the tribute shows on MSNBC this weekend. I have watched each show over and over, not wanting to let go of his presence and not wanting to accept the pain of his loss. And it does hurt. And it is a great, great loss to our nation and to the world. But oh what a better world he made it. You should be very proud of all he was and all he meant and all he did. HE MATTERED.

I know I do not grieve alone. A friend just passed along this video footage to me. I presume it was from today's Meet The Press. I have not seen the show yet. But as always, when words fail me, Bruce Springsteen fills in the missing pieces and makes it all make sense. Like me, Russert was a Bruce fanatic. I cannot think of a more fitting final tribute to Tim's life and times than the footage in photos and music presented on Meet The Press today.

And there's that awful empty chair at the end.

Hard to express the pain and grief of knowing his presence is now always and forever just a spirit in the night.


Empty Chairs at Empty Tables... from Les Miserables:

"Phantom faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more"


Crying over empty gas tanks seems so silly in the scheme of life now, doesn't it?

Most Sunday mornings, I can be found watching “Meet the Press.” This Sunday morning I watched “Meet the Press,” but not really, since Russert’s chair was empty. As I’m sure you know by now, Tim Russert, the host of “Meet the Press” died of a heart attack this past Friday afternoon. The [...]

THE WHITE DARKNESS! THE WHITE DARKNESS!

I'm sorry---I just had to scream that! The White Darkness just won the Printz Award! I was jumping up and down and yelling in front of my computer. My dog came running in to see what was wrong.

If you want to know why I'm so excited, well---I nominated this book for the Cybils, I told Little Willow that it was my favorite read of 2007, and after I read it as a library book, I ran out and bought it.

When I first blogged about it, I said:

"I'll sign off here shortly, but the wireless network inside the library will continue to broadcast. I think that's a mini-miracle, a great and wonderful invention, but it's nothing compared to the intimate, quiet pulse of a library book that finds me, alone and in need of sustenance, and steadily breathes life back into my pale form: THE WHITE DARKNESS"

"I loved every word of this amazing book. The writing is breath-taking, and the plot just pulls you along. And most of all, you completely believe in the inner world of the main character, which is incredible because this is a girl with a long-dead explorer for an imaginary friend."

"I have to give credit to Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray for recommending The White Darkness on her blog, and in Bookslut:

http://www.bookslut.com/bookslut_in_training/2007_06_011207.php

Oh, and here's the opening line: 'I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now––which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years.'

See? With that one line, I bought into her idea of this imaginary companion. Because the narrator's skeptical too, and because he once WAS a real person, and because she truly NEEDS him to be with her, and because she knows so incredibly much about him, and they have wonderful, literary, romantic conversations. It's not in any way twee or flimsy."