Twenty Minutes

Tim Russert's recent passing inspired me to download his book "Wisdom of our Fathers" onto my Amazon Kindle (wireless reading device).   The book contains some of Tim's own stories along with a lot of excerpts from letters that fans wrote to him after reading "Big Russ and Me".  Here's a snippet from a story about a father and son talking outside a funeral chapel as they watched people go in...and then come out.
"My father nodded thoughtfully. 'Well, that's about right.  When a person's life is over, we have a funeral to celebrate that life, and it generally lasts about twenty minutes.' "  The son asked why they were even talking about this, since he's only eleven.  His Dad replied " 'Because I hope you will live a long and productive life, that you will be aware of your surroundings, that you will stay out of trouble, and that you will be thoughtful and cautious.  And above all, that you will always know in the back of your mind that someday your entire life will be summed up in twenty minutes.' "