In
1981, there was a futuristic movie that came out entitled Escape From New York, produced by John Carpenter. The main character,
Snake (played brilliantly by Kurt Russell), was often greeted by other characters in the movie with some variance of the line,
“I thought you were dead!”
I’m
often surprised to learn that some people who I thought were dead are actually still alive. Conversely, there are some who
I thought were still alive who are actually no longer on the right side of the earth’s crust.
I hate when that happens.
Then, there are those who you look at and you wonder how
in the name of Ladmo that they are still consuming naturally produced oxygen either because of their age or their lifestyle.
For instance, I recently interviewed blues great, Johnny Winter, and was thrilled to hear that he was clean and sober
after nine months of treatment. He’s lucky to be alive and is performing better and stronger than
ever.
As I’ve edged
over the half-way mark of the life continuum, I’ve started noticing who’s still around, who’s not, and why,
in both cases, that is. This is especially true when it comes to the people I personally know, whether
family, friends or acquaintances.
On
the family side of things, the annual family reunion I try to always attend started out as just that: a reunion.
In recent years, age and death has affected the attendance and, therefore, the tone of the event. We tend to better
appreciate those we get to see and hug them for dear life when we say good-bye because we’re not sure if we’ll
ever see them again.
On the friend side,
it’s much the same. I serve on the planning committee for my high school’s “30-Something”
class reunion. As any of you who have ever worked on one of these know, the biggest challenge is tracking
people down to make them aware of the reunion. With the advent of the internet and online social networking,
the job is infinitely easier than it used to be but it’s still very hard.
The happiest and saddest part of reunion planning is in
the tracking down of those people or learning of the passing of a classmate or teacher. At our reunions,
it brings tears to my eyes when I hear the shrieks of joy when long lost friends see each other for the first time in a long
time. The hugs are endless as is the chatter while they catch up on each other’s lives.
The tears return as we play the memorial video as we remember
(and, for some, learn for the first time) those classmates we’ve lost. As we watch it, Just A Shadow, written
and recorded by fellow classmate, Doug Barnett (and available on iTunes), poignantly reminds us of the fact that life is just
a shadow that is only shortly lived.
I’m
not a rock star who is miraculously still alive nor am someone so old that I feel that I’m living on borrowed time.
That said, I do find it very fulfilling and enriching to reach out to people I haven’t chatted with in a very
long time and see how THEY’RE doing and to let them know that I’m very glad that they’re still around.
If you haven’t done so, or haven’t done so in a while, track
down an old friend and let them know that you’re thrilled that they’re alive and well.
