What I think of when I hear someone has died...

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

-John Dunne

Today I heard that a friend from college died. We hadn't talked in quite some time but, as is usual when I hear of someone dying, I thought of Dunne's poem. I think I read it for the first time in high school and it has always resonated with me. And even though I hadn't spoken to my friend in over 10 years, had only "reconnected" in that way that people reconnect these days on Facebook, with less connection and more of passing interest, I still am sad that my friend is gone.

"...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind."

Indeed.