We lose a good man..

Those of you following this blog as I relate this adventure may have clicked on the onedayisle blog that I have followed for the last year and a half. It was one of several written by the minister of the First Parish Church of Portland, Maine, Unitarian-Universalist, started when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was an extraordinary man, and a good friend. He was a remarkable combination of high intellect, humor and playfulness, and emotional presence. He had a wonderful vision of what the church could be in the life of Portland, and had he remained healthy, I suspect it would have come about.

But the cancer took him. He returned to his roots in the west earlier this summer, and on Monday I received an e-mail that he had passed away last Sunday morning. It was a shock - he had remained so positive about his prognosis, and you don't want to believe that someone who had as much life in him as Tim did could go before he had finished doing what he wanted to do.

I should note that he came up with the name for this blog. I wanted to use saltydog, but it was taken, or saltydogchronicles, but that's been done, and it is a bit of his humor that brought out saltydogtales. Thanks Tim, wherever you are!