Life's lessons learned too early

Seeing Darkly

One of the best aspects of the place that I work at is the people. They all really like what they do, are good at it, and are also funny. Some of them cannot stand each other and yet they still work together and laugh together. It's a lesson in life really. Working is also getting me to think more about life's many lessons.
One of my favorite people at work is this guy named Richard. He's pretty great. He's a Canadian who has been working in the biz for many years and lived all over the place. He also has a hefty knowledge of two of my favorite subjects: Black and White movies and photography (as well as many, many other topics). Though my shift ends at 1230 a.m., I often stick around on nights that Richard works to talk.
Last night we (in a roundabout fashion) ended up talking about life's lessons and how often we learn them too early. One of the most important being: "Life isn't fair." We were talking about Buddy Holly and how I wasn't really into his 50's sound and we discussed what Buddy could have done had he lived into the sixties where bans on the type of music, instruments and lyrics were lifted (in 1967 to be exact). We decided it wasn't fair that Buddy had died before being allowed to really come into his own.
That's when he asked me, point blank: "Have you lost someone?" It would have bothered me, but its Richard. He's a friend and we definitely connected after he pulled me out of my shell at work.
"Life's not fair." It's something that everyone learns, but often we learn too early in life. Sometimes, though, I feel like learning it early is better for you. Or at least learning of death is the experience I had and it has shaped almost my entire outlook. To be honest I do see the world through a darker lens, but I think it gives me a better perspective. It helps me see beauty in a graveyard (as I found above), joy in death, and to let go of a lot of things that other might be bothered by. I learned those lessons early. Richard did too.
I am happy to be where I am in life. It helps that I have good coworkers where I work. It helps that I have people that accept my darker ways and support me. I hope I will still have a job here after labor day comes (when the hiring freeze may or may not have ended here).