When I was about 20 years old I spent a contemplative day with a friend who told me later that the entire day I’d said three words, “life, death, friend.”  Four decades later the significance of those words still sticks with me.  I shared them recently with the same friend who had just emerged from a coma after a serious bicycle accident and went through a remarkable recovery resuming his teaching.   I now add one word: family.  I think those four words pretty much sum up everything of importance, perhaps with “empathy” thrown in for good measure.  Just last week, another friend, John Payton, President of NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a giant in human rights law, died unexpectedly.  With... more