“For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
–Galatians 7
What had started as a fine summer’s day was now one full of peril. The boat is now less than a couple hundred feet from them. I remember feeling very panicked about it all. I couldn’t believe they would risk life and limb just for those things. All of us are yelling for them to get out of the water, even the crewmen of the ship – its horn blaring. The only way out now was to swim out of the channel.
“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”
–Margaret to Carrie, in Carrie
It’s deep water there in the middle of the bridge; it has to be deep enough for the boats to get through. As usual, we were all jumping in, including Johnny (who along with the Junkyard Dog and Rowdy Roddy Piper had tagged along uninvited.). Everyone’s having a good time, but after a while he notices something’s amiss:
“Where’s my clothes?” he asks.
“Look down there… No, look harder. You see? He lives in you.”
–Rafiki to Simba, in The Lion King
Whether it’s a triggered memory that lingers for a while or one of my habits (like reaching for my cell to exchange texts with him as I’d done several times a day, every day, for the last several years), something reminds me of my brother every day.
“… to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
–Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in opening credits to Star Trek: The Next Generation
When I was a junior in high school, all my classmates were discussing their college ambitions and preparing their college applications. This one wanted to be a lawyer, that one a doctor, the other one an engineer, and on and on and on… Everyone was so excited, but me. I had no clue what I wanted to study, let alone what I wanted to be. But I knew I should go to college. After all, our teachers had always reinforced that. But they never said what we should do once we got there. I had transitioned from being an underachiever to an overachiever (that’s a whole other story) and was doing well in all my classes, even science (which I had always thought sucked.). The only subject I enjoyed on some level was math.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
–Sun Tzu, The Art of War
I’m hanging-out with my dog today: Bubbles Ñeñe Pagan. I never met a gentler dog; He wouldn’t hurt a fly, honestly. And he’s great with the kids. I love this dog, I really do. Every time I look at him, every time, I’m reminded about the day he became part of the family and how it almost didn’t happen.
“He’s not really gone as long as we find a way to remember him.”
–Dr. McCoy to the Enterprise crew, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
It’s been a month since my brother passed. I lost my best friend. At his service, I had shared some stories about him and had reflected on his life in my eulogy. It was a painful process to prepare for but, surprisingly, it really cheered me up. The process of reliving all my memories of him just made me very happy.