The Bitterest Pill #105: We are all Fairport
"On June 26th of this year, a mere five days after graduating themselves, five young women died in a head on collision with a tractor trailer while traveling to a family cottage."
i titled this post heartfelt podcasting, because that is the way i feel about them after i listen to podcasts like this one that deal w/ difficult topics in an honest, open and sincere manner - the motivation of those doing them appears to be to get the story and their pov out there - i imagine doing this podcast for dan was hard and yet also a relief afterward - he obviously did it from his heart, hence the title...
now understand, dan's podcasts are normally slice-of-life snippets - compelling stories that are light. entertaining, escapist fare that range from mildly to milk-out-your-nose humorous - but this one is different because it deals w/ a truly difficult subject, the death of teenagers from the high school he graduated from 25 years ago...
i was listening to this podcast today while i walked one of my dogs in a park by my house, and it immediately resonated w/ me on numerous fronts: my oldest son sean just graduated this year, so he's also a class of 2007 like the kids who died in this accident, he's been driving for a few years now, when he was looking at colleges last summer, we visited rit in rochester ny for a weekend and i had dinner one night on the erie canal in pittsford, which is very close to fairport, a very picturesque area a short distance from the campus...
this accident was well documented by traditional media, but dan's podcast dealt w/ the event in a dignified and again heartfelt way - we parents are constantly saying to our driving aged kids: drive safe, don't speed, don't talk on your cellphones while you drive, don't text msg while you drive, don't drink and drive, call us if you don't feel comfortable driving home, call us if you're too tired to drive home, etc... - frankly in our household its a ritual but that's all it is, we can't be there all the time, you just have to hope that they'll remember all the nagging when decision time for them comes...
w/ that in mind, i gave this podcast to sean, not to scare him but simply because it is also a story that'll resonate w/ him - two of his classmates have had tragedies since their graduation: one kid's dad committed suicide a few weeks ago and last week another one lost two younger brothers in a tragic car crash - both of these events are really hard for anyone to deal w/ but especially teenagers about to head off to college, arguably their first steps towards independence and adulthood - dan's words of wisdom won't take away the pain and discomfort that comes w/ exposure to the fragile nature of life - but it will help w/ the "live everyday the best you can" and understand that even the simplest decisions are important so never make them lightly...
i would put this podcast from dan right up there w/ dave slusher's "why i don't believe in god" podcast - they both are heartfelt and show the true power of a podcaster's ability to deeply touch others via this simple distribution of media content - direct from them to us...
Thanks for listening, and thanks for giving the show to your son. Tell him congrats for me for graduating, and let me know how he liked the podcast.
Thanks for the great blog post. It means the world...
We are all Fairport.
- dK
Posted by: Dan Klass | July 16, 2007 at 01:30 PM