Simon and Garfunkel asked “where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
Joltin Joe epitomized what America was about.
In that same light, I will see myself asking “where have you gone Bill Harder?” For me, Bill, or Uncle Bill as our girls called him” represented everything a husband, father and friend should be. I’m not sure we will see the likes of a man like him again.
As I sat in the pews at his service last Friday looking up at the slide show Nick so lovingly put together, I had to wrestle with the thought of how a man with so much life in him was no more. The smile, the athleticism, the zest for life and family. It was tough to reconcile those photos with the harsh reality he was no longer here.
I always saw a lot of myself in Bill when it came to his desire to squeeze the most out of life and how he strived to make family tradition so important. Maybe that’s why it was extra tough.
But as I searched my heart and my faith, it only gave greater confirmation that his spirit, which was his life force, was gone. His soul was no longer of this world but of heaven.
In the Bible, the word RUACH is used when God breathes into something. RUACH means breath, the breath of life, wind, spirit. This is the same RUACH – breath of life, spirit – that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and “ the man became a living being [an individual complete in body and spirit]” (Gen. 2:7)
It is described as all that motivates, inspires, encourages, impels, triggers, stirs, provokes, stimulates or activates. A life force of action verbs. For those of you who knew Bill, apply each one of those verbs to something you thought about him or remember him by. It’s not hard. Although Bill loved to relax, he was a man of action. Like Nick so eloquently described in the story about fixing the boat dock, Bill was always quick to lend a hand or a hug, a lug wrench or a laugh, an ear or a explanation.
The Ruach is what remains. The earthly body returns to dust as the Word says, from dust we came and to dust we shall return. But God’s handiwork, his most perfectly crafted creation, the BREATH OF LIFE, the RUACH, that goes on to the next world.
So when Chris or Nick or Marie or myself one day wonder, where have you gone Bill Harder, we must know that it is to a better place, where his Ruach is still his Ruach and where a hundred years feels like a minute.
When we see him again, and we will, to us it may have felt like forever, but for him it’ll be like yesterday.
Until then, every time I see an anchor or feel the salty air of a sea breeze, I’ll lovingly and respectfully take a moment and say hello to my old friend Uncle Bill.
We Love You
David, Angelike, Ella and Phoenix.