I usually try to stay away from the serious religious talk on this weblog. This, I don't feel is the forum for sacred feelings. But I would feel a teeny bit ungrateful to let this day pass without a slight nod to a man I admire.

Whether you agree with his religious philosophy or not, I don't think that there's anyone who can deny he was a man of conviction; one who truly believed. And one who didn't let the fact that he'd achieved the advanced age of 97 pass for an excuse to assume he'd done enough, to sit back on his laurels and take it easy. Something I'm having trouble doing at the tender age of 40.

I think one of my favorite things about him is the sense of humor with which he faced his life and his Presidency. When he first became prophet, I remember the press asking him "What will be your THING? Will it be 'read the Book of Mormon'? 'avoid pride'? What will be the theme of your Presidency?"

His eyes flashed as he smiled at them and said, "Endure to the end."

Like so many of my parents' generation who felt that David O McKay was such a central figure and the face of The Church during that time, I feel that way about Gordon Hinckley. I will miss him.