Reflecting on the life of a man

Yesterday, my wife and I attended the funeral of Charlie Sposato. I found out he passed this last Monday and I had a lot of mixed feelings. Charlie was a devout Christian and Catholic by practice. He was one of the few people I know who was always sincere and humble, even when he was telling you that he was more handsome than yourself.

By vocation Charlie was a teacher. I actually met him when I worked at the MATCH School where he was the principal. By the time I knew him he already had a long fruitful career that I only barely knew of even after working with him for 5 years. I pieced together the breadth of his impact through conversations and seeing some of the newspaper clippings he used to keep in his office. As a colleague attested to recently in an email about him, he had an amazing repertoire of knowledge, both academic, and human. He had a truly God-given gift of connecting with people and teaching them in a way that they understood and appreciated.

**I feel like I need to qualify the words "teaching" and "teacher" here. Charlie was everyone's teacher, and he was everyone's pupil. I never sat in on a class with him, but I felt like every time I talked to him, there was something to learn from the interaction. He was a teacher in the specific sense that he taught classes for a long time, but he was a teacher in a more profound sense -- he taught everyone.

Charlie was dedicated to making a difference in the lives of his students better. He gave every student the benefit of the doubt, he was always their friend and always their mentor. He exuded the qualities that I believe are exemplary of Christian life. If there was anyone that I could point to and say, "That man knows God!" it would be Charlie. I say that, not because he was constantly preaching - which he didn't do, but because he truly cared for everyone he met. He did not seem to waste a single moment in his life, constantly trying to help others. He was not a proud man either, he had no illusions of being better than anyone else which prompted him to work incessantly to correct his own faults so that they would not hinder others. Perhaps Ayn Rand would call his self-sacrifice selfish in some way, but I don't think it matters. Even if someone wants to say that he did those things so he would feel better about himself, he still did them and that is more than I can often say for myself. Is it wrong to do good things if you enjoy them? I think not, I think it should be a joy to do the will of God, and for Charlie it was.

I like to think that he is with his Maker now. I hope that he can see how much we all appreciated his presence on this earth. We will miss you Charlie and in this moment I hope sincerely there is an afterlife just so I can give you a hug and you can say I have a big nose.