MISSING

while on one of her many many hikes along the PCT trail, Geolyn happened upon a guy named Jim who was really interesting and knowledgeable. turns out he was some big wig at Microsoft, and a few weekends ago, he went out in his boat to spread his mothers ashes into the pacific ocean, and has not been seen since. there is a website devoted to finding him, and it raises a question for me: how long would you hold out hope if a family member or friend went missing? obviously, the time spent searching allows some grieving to soak in, but there has to remain a level of denial if the search extends beyond weeks. but then hollywood presented us with castaway, and the same question... with a little answer: the wife ends up moving on, and poor Tom Hanks is left all alone in the world with a stupid package which leads him to a beautiful woman...(yeah right) but back to the topic, would the hope of finding the person prevent you from properly dealing with their potential death, or is it necessary to begin the grieving process? would it be rude to give up too soon, and therefore, the hope is exisiting to merely fend off our own guilt?

i have no answers to any of these questions, but as of now, we are still hoping that Jim is found safe and sound, perhaps he has made his way down to Baja california, and is drinking Mai Tais on the beach.

we can only hope...