|
Eddie was a pain in the BUTT. I'll
admit it. AND because of it HE WAS UNFORGETTABLE.
AS a teacher, rule of thumb is
YOU don't remember the names
of those courteous students first,
BUT the name of THOSE
you CONSTANTLY have to repeat
& they are usually NOT the best behaved ;)
I keep forgetting he was not alone in his antics,
HIS PARTNER IN CRIME was VASQUEZ.
=P
Even though like clockwork I'd pull Eddie aside:
I'd talk to him. I 'd scold him,
I'd TRY to understand what made him tick.
I grew to respect him. I tried to tell him so:
"Eddie, YOU ARE so bright, YOU ARE so intelligent, perhaps TOO intelligent for
your age.
AND right now you HAVE to have patience with us AND be on your BEST behavior"
I thought to myself THAT I may never see
WHAT I expected of him:
I would tell him ,"I EXPECT great things from you. I SEE you doing WHATEVER
you want to do."
**Maybe it was a constant reminder for me to have PATIENCE, and more patience...
with him
One time I saw him flirting and thought to myself WOW, riches, glory, AND WOMEN?
He's set for life...
Or so I thought...
I broke down when I saw him last Tuesday at PICU @ the Childen's Hospital...
I stared at someone so restless, so vivacious,
BOUND, tied down, tube tied...
and it was difficult to witness.
**And to the end I got to see his sister Beatrice care for him... so tenderly...
HIS life was flashing before my eyes
everything I HAD in mind for him, the success, the glory, and yes even the women...
GONE, vanished, no more...
|
Soon I was on a creative journey,
I kept somehow wanting to be able
to create that perfect image, that unique metaphor
that would speak of Eddie.
AND it was difficult, what had not been done before, what HAD not been expressed
before...
he GAVE new meaning to the SONG above,
for me IT will be ONE I shall remember Eddie by,
BUT my image of him was still incomplete...
Then it occured to me. AFTER days of reflection
after A LOT AND LOT'S of thinking:
THE COMPLETE PACKAGE.
Eddie was one of the most COMPLETE
human beings I had ever met.
Everyone saw something different in him:
The good, the mischievous,
and even sometimes the ugly...
AND I realized days later...
that ALL THAT SUCCESS,
AND ALL THAT GLORY I expected of him?
He acomplished it.
He provided something FEW OF US
(especially men)
could ever offer to someone else:
A NEW LIFE. A 2nd CHANCE.
By donating his organs
HE GAVE A RAY OF HOPE to someone else.
Was it success?
Was it Glory?
Not in my selfish, terrestrial terms...
but in the transcendental sense?
Oh yes. And it NEVER would
have occured to me, EVER!
As for the metaphor?
I had to reissue one tried and true:
He was no CANDLE. He was no slow burner;
HE LIVED LIFE TO THE FULLEST...
like a FIRECRACKER...he went out with a BANG and NOT a whimper...
Not for our times, WAY ahead of our time...
-4rom Leo
|
