Possibly the truest true I’ve ever heard.  Think about those people who have passed thru your life and then, rather than crying or mourning their death,  smile because their life happened and you were in it, even for just a minute.

I’ve always rejoiced in the memories of friends and others who have passed on to their just rewards.  While we all are saddened with a loss,  when that sad memory manifests itself,  I often smile when their existence and my life with them runs around in my pointed little head.

Of all the places I sometimes hear things that burn into my brain, I can hear them on Sunday morning, while I drink a cup of coffee with my wife Barbie and we watch our favorite television program Sunday Morning on CBS.  This has been my favorite television program as long as I can remember, my wife looked thru her daily life journal and saw that she had written that more than once.  That’s right, some of our favorite times has been drinking a great cup of coffee and watching a show that celebrates the greatness in humankind for the living and also those who have passed.

Today I heard this being uttered by none other than the last ringmaster of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Johnathan Lee Iverson, as he discussed the closing of this Greatest Show On Earth the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

We then went on to watch the father of a departed friend, Karen Reed, who discussed what had driven him to recreate this Greatest Show On Earth in a scale miniature in an obvious obsessive compulsive quest to preserve a circus whose time has passed.

I first heard about this scale model circus from the creators daughter Karen and her husband Steve Reed more than a few years ago.  This scale model found itself being displayed at the Smithsonian institute and finally in a museum in Florida built and funded by her father Howard Tibbals.  This museum is now a part of the Smithsonian and will always be a way those who never saw this Greatest Show On Earth can remember it.  I only saw Howard Tibbals once at his daughters funeral, I also know that my friend Steve also has a little of this same OCD when I look at an incredible scale model of his version of the history of railroading.  Steve has painstakingly built Tiny houses and buildings that surround his model trains and show a time that has all but past.  Howard Tibbals daughter, Karen Reed, was also a very talented and accomplished artist whose home decorating was like no other I have ever seen.

Anyhow, thanks to the last ringmaster of The Greatest Show on Earth and also to Sunday Morning for sharing this story.  It’s funny how a circus can provide us with a statement of a wonderful way of mourning and turning sadness into a smile.

So as you mourn the passing of your loved ones, smile at your memories of time spent with them.  And if they are still here with us, make sure you tell them how much you cherish your time together and that will make them smile.  Hope you all have a great Sunday, whatever you do, smile!