To the Editor:
I appreciate Jon Schroeder's impassioned demand for openness and honesty in speaking about death in his column dated Jan. 30, and particularly one so close to home. Yet even such deplorable words as "incident" and "with solemn respect" may be accepted as signs of the inherent limitation of any language. Language is meant to give us enough distance from the overwhelming to protect us from being overwhelmed. All language falsifies what it illuminates, even the most empathetic language.
