R.I.P. Munson

Susan Walsh informs us that the indefatigable Munson has died:

This morning I received an email from Susan Munson letting me know that Tom died yesterday afternoon. I know that all of you who read his brilliant, irreverent and hilarious comments here will grieve this loss with me. Although Munson kept us posted on his illness and his prognosis, I realized when I heard of his passing that I have been waiting for Munson to come back and begin writing again. It’s devastating to imagine this blog without him, and he leaves a vast hole in the space he filled with his intelligence and kindness.

Munson lived in Boise, Idaho. He was a prestigious lawyer, a devoted husband and dad to Paul, 23. He was so much larger than life – he was a reader, a philosopher, a brilliant observer, an astute historian and an incredible character. He embraced every experience to the fullest, including mental illness and his own final battle with cancer.

He was a good man and an insightful observer of the human condition, but above all, he was a man who left this world undefeated and unbowed.

"Many people have been telling me, in reference to my condition, to “rage, rage against the dying of the light”. Dylan Thomas epic lines are certainly moving. But I am called to remember God’s response to Job when he questioned God’s running of things, and specifically His undeserved punishment of him. I can’t do it justice, but God comes out of a whirlwind and says to Job Where were you when I created the universe? Tell Me how I did it, if you have the understanding? Did you give yourself life? Have you so many days you can tell Me how to move the stars of the Pleiades, or scatter the ones of Orion? Who gave you understanding of your own heart? Who gave you wisdom? Can you even perceive the breadth of the earth? Do you water the deserts where no man has set foot? Do you feed the lions? Do you keep the waves at bay, or know how light is created? Do you know how to make rivers, that the denizens thereof have homes? Where have you such understanding that you can question anything I do? Who gave you this responsibility?

I am not Job. I have been blessed with abundance."

"I am not Job." One simply cannot eulogize a man who speaks for himself with such succinct eloquence.