FARE YE WELL

As human lives go, mine has been relatively short. Yet I sincerely believe that I have been blessed to meet and befriend more than my lifetime’s fair share of wonderful people. My travels, be they of extended or limited stay, have yielded an abundance of opportunities that I never could have imagined; indeed opportunities that most I know probably will never have. (see previous post, “Wish I Could Take Us All”.)

Every stage brings a new cast of characters. The school on the clay hill gave me The African, the Shakespearian, the Matriarch the Scholar, and Doc, Chief, Bake, the SGA and all those that came with, the third floor of the Wood in 99-00, The Gump Boys, Third, Thaf, the Motor City Boys, Nitty, B Mac, Kerm, Kenny, The Lou boys, The Q, B Phi B, C Coll, The squares. The Phi House, the Phi House, and the PHI HOUSE! Nate, Sykes, and Ware. The Caf. The Station, and Big Jay. The PC, Socks, the Queen, Fife, Sobukwe, and A Love Supreme. Spoon, Chuck, Big Law, Auburn, and Hov.

The New England experience gave me a thousand more faces to dialogue and exchange with. And, contrary to my expectations upon arrival in New England, Boston gave me countless new friends, classmates and not. Deva. ‘Nayak. Susarizzle. Gopes and Loo. Brother Mike. Section A, the Clinic. Bee, Shelly and Groover. Halo, Follies, DK, BG, Chasek. Cedes, Vo, Meg.
Tokyo, Belize, Miniwanca, NYC, conferences, groups, clubs and organizations. Greater Mt. Carmel. Anniston. Normandy. Ladue. Matthews Dickey. St. Louis, St. Louis, and St. Louis.
As a matter of pure fact, I feel really, really stupid right now for starting to type names in this entry at all. It’s impossible to drop shout outs to everyone I know and love.

So I’ll get on to my point. Sometimes I get kinda sad when I reflect on the plethora of beautiful people and times. Think of your stages. The people who were with you at that stage, who lived that period with you and defined that period for you; the people sitting next to you, the people you crossed paths with every day at 3:12 PM, the janitors, the administrators, the faces, the colleagues, the friends. That same group will never, ever be all together again. Of course we’ll stay in regular contact with those closest to us. (That’s why I didn’t list yall’s names!) But that number is minute in comparison to those we’ll lose.

That makes many people, many friends, that you appreciated at different times and for different reasons, that you may, no, probably will, never see again. And it’s not out of malice from either party, or even negligence. It’s just that life goes on, people move on, and lose touch. That’s the way this a-wheel keeps working out.

So let this be my wish, no, my prayer for every last one of the people that I’ve known, or respected, or appreciated, or loved, whether they knew it or not. Pray the Prayer. Run the Race. Stay the Course. Fight the Fight. And fare ye well, fare ye well, if I never ever see you anymore. I’ll meet you on the other shore.