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The Reminder

I watched Hook last night. Not because I was sad, per se. But it seemed right to remember. I checked Netflix, and there it was. Maybe it was there in the background, though, because I was more emotional than I wanted to be.

I knew a guy in high school who took his own life. We were friends, though I have to use that term loosely. As you might expect, he didn't let many people in. He was my lab partner in the 7th grade, and again junior year in chemistry. He carried me, and I blamed myself for a long time. He was on my heart as I tried to sleep.

I think it's true we take people and things for granted. In this way, we're like children. Perhaps that's an odd thing to say. I know what I mean by it.

I could only manage one sentence of a prayer last night. It wasn't about Robin Williams; it's the weight of what that loss teaches us, simple things that we mock too often. It's not a Sunday School answer or the payoff to an after-school special unless it's true.

Alan is right today. Do me a favor: Even if getting out of bed is like winning the Tour de France, do that one little thing. Make it an act of joyous defiance, a rebuke to death and hell. Give it to God.
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