How do you tell someone...

I just had a harrowing three weeks. If I had to share with you the details of the three weeks, I wouldnt begin to know where to start sharing those thoughts.

The thing is, how do you tell someone in a not so "in your face way" that I was not on vacation, "vacationing", but rather with some critically ill, who then passed away and I was no longer being with but rather mourning and burying that person?

I realized that as Americans, we really shy away from "harrowing" topics. Things that abuse our sense of life are things that should remain publically taboo. When i got back, all my friends, associates who I work with asked how my vacation went. On the record, it was considered a vacation, but I was not relaxing on some Indonesian Beach sipping on virgin Margaritas, no, rather, I was doing something quite the opposite and not so quite self absorbed.

In my one day being back, I realized that people when told what I did on my "vacation" are a bit dumbfounded, even disturbed and leave in reverent silence at the fact that I vacationed with death for three weeks. But then again, what do you want me to say about the emmotional process I as a human went through, "oh, yeh, Indonesia a great place to go surf, you should go next time on your vacation, I suggest you stay at the Hilton in Bali."