After The Echo

I have a dear friend. 

Frankly, I'm not sure if it's "have" or "had" at this point.

You see he's been battling stage 4 cancer.

For a while!

Way longer than most people make it!

He's been "dead on the table", heart stopped... for long spells…more than once.  Yet, when he visits the hospital, everyone breaks into giant smiles when they see him coming.  Often he's coming for more tests or for chemo or other nastiness so many endure.  Those people just beam with smiles – because he lights up their world, just walking into it.  He sings funny songs, cracks jokes and acts like they're out together for "An Evening At The Improv".  He lightens their load for a few minutes.

His doctors shake their heads with bewilderment because, like the Energizer Bunny, he just keeps going! That's the bright part.

There is another part. Several times, I've heard nothing from him for months.  My calls and texts sit, like a question… an empty room… with only their own echo for company.

You see his family doesn't speak English and I have no relationship or connection with them.  I can only hope someone will reach out to me if he can't.  It's a bleak thought!

But then one day, my phone rings (as has happened several times. after very long silences) and my heart leaps when I see the caller ID. It's him and no matter what I'm doing, I'm taking this call!  People around me think I'm a crazy man or I've just won the Publishers Clearinghouse (some of you young whipper snappers will have to google that one). The last time I got one of those calls was August 2023…

So again, I'm sitting on the platform, waiting for a train that may or may not come…

But as I ponder it, there's another very bright part.  One that does not fade.

That is the part where I remember his greeting when I answer the phone or we laugh together at one of his painfully obscure jokes.

All of this got me thinking…

about life…

and what comes after…

What comes after for us…

And our contributions for those we leave behind when we go.

So I penned these words in August 2020.

After The Echo

Was there a moment

As you worked hard and you played hard

Was there ever a moment

When you wondered "what’s the next card?"

And Wasn’t it lonely

When the beat stopped ... and the world stopped?

Or did you see only

The beginning of the next part, (of the best part)?

After the echo

When the crowd goes

And the lights fade

After the echo

Will the world care

For what we made?

After the echo

Can they build on

Bricks that we laid?

After the echo

After the echo…

We need to be seeking

For the meaning of the screening

And we gotta listen

For the reason, for this season

Yeah, we gotta listen!

‘cause life is so fleeting

But the next one is the best one

So we gotta hold fast

To the promise of the sent one

After the echo

And the lessons

And the sessions

What was the mission?

What is the mission?

After the echo

When the crowd goes

And the lights fade

After the echo

Will the world care

For what we made?

After the echo

Can they build on

Bricks that we laid?

After the echo

After the echo…

—

Much love!  Make today the best ever!