Meaningless

One of my residents passed away yesterday. It was the second death in the two months since I have been working there. What has surprised me most about their deaths is how quickly the world adjusts to their absence. Within only a few hours, the resident is bathed, dressed, packed away and taken to the funeral home, while life at the assisted living home continues as if nothing at all ever happened. Nobody even seems to notice. 

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The following passage from Ecclesiastes 1: 1-11 speaks the troubles of my heart.....

 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

  "Meaningless! Meaningless!" 

       says the Teacher. 

       "Utterly meaningless! 

       Everything is meaningless."

  What does man gain from all his labor 

       at which he toils under the sun?

 Generations come and generations go, 

       but the earth remains forever.

 The sun rises and the sun sets, 

       and hurries back to where it rises.

 The wind blows to the south 

       and turns to the north; 

       round and round it goes, 

       ever returning on its course.

 All streams flow into the sea, 

       yet the sea is never full. 

       To the place the streams come from, 

       there they return again.

 All things are wearisome, 

       more than one can say. 

       The eye never has enough of seeing, 

       nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 What has been will be again, 

       what has been done will be done again; 

       there is nothing new under the sun.

 Is there anything of which one can say, 

       "Look! This is something new"? 

       It was here already, long ago; 

       it was here before our time.

 There is no remembrance of men of old, 

       and even those who are yet to come 

       will not be remembered 

       by those who follow.