The Muddle of the Middle

I read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom a few months ago, and one thing that he said has really affected me and I can't get it out of my mind. He said that when death takes someone, whether through illness or accident, there is more to it than just the taking of that person; that in the "taking", death misses someone else. There is more to any death event, there is a middle ground, where the person may not even be aware that they were missed, but there is some thing that ties them intrinsically to the one taken (though they may not find out until they get to heaven too).
Now, I may not agree with his version of heaven, but this idea of primal give and take has stuck with me. Now, whenever I see or hear of a fatal accident on the freeway, I think of all those people who may not even be aware that they were missed. Had they not forgotten their jacket and went back home to get it, had the kids not slept in late, had hit that green light, they might have been the one dead. They are in the middle now. They were missed. They should be thankful.
But, our human mind really isn't equipped to continually deal with the realities of death, so we forget about that "close call" on the freeway last week, and just go about our lives. I just can't get that idea out of my head everytime I hear about a death. Rather morbid, but I think it really shows the interconnectivity of all life. How what I do affects what everyone else around me does, though I may not be aware of the how or why. If I have a bad morning on the commute to work, and cut someone off, will that person have a bad day, and then go home and fight with their family?
Certainly food for thought.