Watching Friends Die

I learned yesterday Michael Sullivan died.

That sucks!

We liked each other. He managed the news and I often gave him some.

I'd show up at the TV station for "Live at 6" and we'd sit in his tiny little office and crack jokes or wax crazy philosophy like that in  A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ... which makes perfect sense if you've been drinking ... which we did on occasion ... on Tybee Island where we both lived ... making it worse was Chicago Bob and Johnny O were part of this circle meaning we were never quite sure which Galaxy we were actually hitchhiking to or from.

We also serious stuff together and he was always supportive of anything I was doing.

Mostly though, I'd stroll to the Pier when Dean still ran it for The Bored Meeting with Johnny O, Chicago Bob, Whitely Reynolds, Trolley Joe, O Johnny (not to be confused with Johnny O) and Michael Sullivan.

Sitting on the beloved back deck, I can't help but think to myself and say to God. "Holy Shit! Another friend has died."

Chicago Bob went first. Trolley Joe second. Some have claimed that Whitley died but nobody ever told him so he keeps doing the same stuff.

I get to thinking about it and it starts adding up. My Dad died a few years ago. My sweet cousin Sheri Baker died last year. Rick Donnelly, also my cousin, was the same age as me, left two years ago. Dean who ran the Pier and made us our own VIP section at the bar one night while the Tams played.

It sucks.

But I'm a minister and am supposed to make sense of it somehow. All I know is that life's a gift that none of us asked for yet each of us share. None of us know how long we got it ... or how much we have one another in our lives ... all we know is this is what we got or this is who we've had.

A lot of people are glass-half-empty people (like politicians, preachers and news reporters). They look at the dying that goes on around us and lament, "Well, this just sucks and it's going to happen to me one day too ... AND THAT SUCKS MORE!"

Like Michael, Chicago Bob, Johnny O, O Johnny but most definitely Trolley Joe, I look at it all a little differently.

It's great to be alive today!

It's wonderful having the people I have in my life right now!

It was incredible having the people I've had in my life because I don't know what I would have done without them!

So Michael, the party goes on, just as I know you would have insisted. It's a little different than what it would be if were still here but you're not.

But your spirit is. Your influence remains. Some of the laughter sounds like yours. Some of the crying does too.

Or to put it in the words of the Major Prophets John, Paul, George and Ringo ... "O-blah-dee, O-blah-dah, life goes on! BRAH!"
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