People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.
- Mother Teresa
I am often astonished by the striking juxtaposition of life and death that, oddly enough, has come to define the major familial aspects of my young adult life. As I work up the strength to say goodbye to Opa - my last remaining grandparent, the quiet but brilliant German engineer and lover of RVs, logic puzzles and a fine glass of Scotch - in his last few days, I can’t help but be reminded of Lila, my 3 year old half-sister. Her unmistakable vivacity and extraordinary youth (was I ever that young?) seem only to be magnified when sharing my thoughts with our rapidly deteriorating grandfather.
And so much of it makes me sad, plain and simple. I hold out hope that the powerful, albeit fleeting, moments Lila has shared with both our grandmother and grandfather have formed meaningful, life-long memories in her thoughts and in her heart.
But with death comes life. As Lila says goodbye to Opa, she is only just saying hello to the world that lies ahead. A world that, as far as I’m concerned, is so amazingly unimaginable that I couldn’t begin to guess what’s in store, or where life will take her. The pain of grieving and loss is unavoidable, but more often than not can be exchanged for the inevitable excitement of youth that drives the passion of children (and young adults!) to go forth. And go forth we will - how can we not?
Tupac Shakur
Been waiting for a while for these fools to release some new stuff. Nothing surprising, but certainly doesn’t disappoint. That’s what’s up.