sorry

English is so lacking, at times. My last remaining grandparent died Wednesday night after a short illness, and I've been hearing people say "I'm sorry" for the last week, over and over and over again. I appreciate the sentiment, but I've always felt that 'sorry' really should be saved for instances of contrition and guilt. Saying sorry as sympathy somehow doesn't convey it in the right way. In German you say "Es tut mir leid," which transliterates as 'it does me sorrow.' Somehow I like this better. I also realize I'm railing at windmills here, but isn't there a better way?

So all this sorry is making me shut down a bit. I get to spend three days flying on small planes to podunk Southern cities and back for the funeral, but at least I get to see a side of the family that I never do. It's probably the last time that I will see the small northern Louisiana town that the great-grandfather after whom I'm named helped to found.

But today it's my 35th birthday. Christ on a pogo stick.