The arbitrariness of death

I've been ruminating the past few days about the arbitrariness or unpredictability of death. While all sorts of people die every day, particular occurrences sometimes stand out for each of us. Two recent deaths struck me because of their apparent accidental nature, not the result of old age, disease or suicide.

One was the death of Bob Simon not long ago. He was an accomplished reporter and commentator, in recent years with 60 Minutes. He was roughly my age, in his early 70's. As I recall, he was being driven in NYC in a chauffeured car, apparently using a limo service he had often used. There was a car crash that took Simon's life, suddenly and unexpectedly. Actions of his own driver may have contributed to Simon's death.

Just the other day, Dave Goldberg, best known to most as husband to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg but also head of SurveyMonkey, died on vacation in Mexico. He was exercising on a treadmill at the vacation resort when he fell and hit his head and died of traumatic brain injury. It appears to have been an accident. He was only 47 years of age.

I haven't tried to draw any "lessons" from these events. I'm more sad than reflective about them. I guess "seize the day" does, however, come to mind.