Update on Hilarious English Professor

Last time I wrote about this professor, I was talking about his depressing life advice, which was somewhat of a low point in the course of the semester. Today he redeemed himself.

First, before the "story", let me set the scene. Professor Mark Strand is a mountain of a man, towering well above 6 feet tall, with neatly combed grey hair, a weathered face, and shoulders wider than the Oklahoma pan handle. He is about 70 years old, I'm guessing. He usually wears a coat jacket, some sort of shirt, and jeans. He has published somewhere around 10 volumes of poetry, used to write comedy pieces for the New Yorker, and was Poet Laureate of the United States some time in the early 90's. He speaks slowly and deliberately in a low grumble.

He walked into class today a few minutes after the official starting time, so that most of the class was already seated around the table. This is what he said as he walked in:

The rain is gone

[pause]

The sun is out

[pause]

And some day we'll all be dead.

Then he asked the class if we ever thought about the arrangements we would make for our death - what kind of coffin, whether we want to be cremated, etc. He then said that he had put these consdierations off until last night.