Here, Costas lionizes the late Yankee slugger but does so with a grain of honesty that invokes forgiveness for the flaws in a human relationship. For Mantle, Costas tells, beyond the adulation and admiration, "he got something far more meaningful. He got love. Love for what he had been, love for what he made us feel, love for the humanity and sweetness that was always there mixed in the flaws and all the pain that racked his body and his soul." (Costas, p. 1) For our mother nature, pain has sadly been a defining feature of her experience. Like the great maternal nurturer who sends her children into the world to make their fortune, she has selflessly given of herself until there is nothing left to sacrifice. And even then, for her children, she would proceed to make the ultimate sacrifice, giving her very life and existence so that we may have our will and whim satisfied. Perhaps it is most tragic that our will and whim did not direct us toward her protection and salvation, let alone the glory that is deservedly hers. Quite so, in her loss, we find a great many glories may never be realized. As we have sought a gratification learned outside of her bounteous majesty and even more often at its expense, we have piece...

On the occasion of the funeral of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, businessman, innovator and humanitarian, his sister delivered a sentiment of universal importance. She remarked that "We all - in the end - die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories." (Simpson, p. 1) Never a truer sentiment has been uttered, either as it referred to the great man who was subject to this memoriam or as it refers here today to our lost natural history. As we have watched her weaken, wane and disappear, we have witnessed the quiet stifling of a story in mid-narrative. In nature's beauty, in her ingenuity and in her encompassing reflection of ourselves, we were given access to a story in a constant state of unfolding, of becoming and of evolving.
Works Cited:

Costas, B. (1995). Eulogy in Honor of Mickey Mantle. Funeralwise.com.

Idle, E. (2001). Eulogy in Honor of George Harrison. Funeralwise.com.

Simpson, M. (2011). Eulogy in Honor of Steve Jobs. Funeralwise.com