That a young and gifted person should be in too much pain to be asked to stay alive in the world and give it more in no way diminishes the gifts already given, what they meant, what I learned. I know that. But I still spent most of last night and this godawfully early morning picking at a wound that isn't mine in the first place, reading bits over and over, laughing again at an insight and weeping over flashes of merriment that are forever gone.
I should have rented movies this morning and permitted myself a day of escapism. Instead I thought I would work past it, as the salt of sweat is the best salt for such wounds, and wound up punching aimlessly at work that while meaningful will never mean that much, failing and flailing and finding myself at 3 p.m. eating grilled cheese with the salt of tears and a side of punch-my-face for letting the day go the way it did, wasted because I did neither what my head intended nor what my heart wanted.
I am sorry for his family; sorry for us: for the words that won't be said, for the places we might never go because he can't take us.
Thank you for the link and the note. That was about the best graduation speech I've ever read. Crying while I type - strangers who untangle our feelings and spread them out into words do not feel like strangers do they?
Posted by: Julia | September 16, 2008 at 12:21 PM