A thought for JD

A thought for JD

My candle burns at both ends,
it cannot last the night.
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends –
it gives a lovely light. –Edna St. Vincent Millay

I once believed in live and let live.
Natural selection.
That I was not my brother’s keeper.
Everyone chose their course in life,
and it was their obligation to navigate that course.
No matter the storms and shoals,
It was their course to sail.
But I no longer believe that.
History and experience teaches us otherwise.
We are responsible for each other.
We are the winds of the storms
that blow the ships in our lives about.
And we can, by the smallest things we say,
by the love we give generously or withold,
blow those ships to safe harbor
or upon the most dangerous shoals.
Now, there are people who can repair those ships,
those crashed upon the rocks,
still it is only patchwork,
material to cover the damage done,
never able to make them new.
But we are, each one of us,
able to keep them new,
by saying the things we want to hear,
by giving the love we want to receive.
We are responsible
for blowing those ships to safe harbor.
Paul said:
If I speak in the tongues of men, or of angels,
but do not have love, I am but a resounding gong
or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy,
and can fathom all mystery, and all knowledge,
and if I have faith to move mountains, but do not have love,
I am nothing.
If I give all of my possessions to the poor,
and give my body over to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love never fails.

My brother JD, you were a man of great vision, but the love you
so desperately needed you were unable to see.
Do not fear, you will never be alone for
a part of me will always be with you.