This Is Not The Way It Is Supposed To End

People like John McCain are supposed to ride off into the sunset.  They deserve it.
That’s why news of the Senator’s diagnosis came as such a gut punch.  Love him or not any clear thinking person respects McCain.
The announcement called to mind a similar circumstance of another legend, former Scottsdale Mayor Herb Drinkwater.  McCain, John-012309-18421- 0004
With no equal for constituent service and the broadest smile in the American West Drinkwater was beloved.  But in the 1990s he decided over a decade was time enough as Mayor of the “West’s Most Western Town.” Ride off into the sunset he planned.  But then cancer called.  Drinkwater died far too soon.
And who was there to eulogize him?  John McCain.  He waxed appropriate and eloquent not just about a man who had endorsed him early on during his Arizona quests, but for the first among equals Drinkwater was as a personality and leader.
That Arizona was denied the full life of one of these men is punishment enough.  Drinkwater surely wishes his friend to join him in the heavens, though we know he won’t mind if that’s not what John McCain has in mind just yet.