In here, and all throughout my life, I’ve witnessed people coming and going. Everyone has. From childhood to adulthood, somone is always leaving. There’s a line in a song called Joy by Phish where Trey Anastasio says, “When we were young we thought life was a game, but then somebody leaves you and you’re never the same.” Isn’t it wonderfully tragic the impact people have on us and we have on others? Voids are made and filled with others comings and goings, and they leave bits of themselves while taking morsels of you with them until you’ve been torn to pieces and you don’t know who you are anymore. As we grow older we look back on some of those relationships we lost as children and remember what part of us we lost. For me, it was when my friend Zane moved away when we were in elementary. We went to school, church, and every where in between together. Then his parents moved, and I cried. He was my pal. My bestfriend. Years later, in our late teens, we reconnected, but it was too awkward. Bits of other relationships and experiences had molded us into two different characters.
In about two weeks, Stew, a friend of mine will be getting out and moving on with his life. No, he will not write or contact me. We both know this. It is the prison way. It is time to move on. And as Stew leaves and embarks on the next phase of his life, I wish him well and take things I’ve learned from him to heart. Because that is the ultimate lesson in relationships.
When people come into my life, and if I can stand their presence for more than a week, I’ve learned to make the best of that time spent with them because you never know when they will be gone. Listening is the sure way to enjoy someones company and take from them to impact your life. Everyone and everything is fleeting. Here today and gone tomorrow, we have to enjoy each other until the day we move on.
Go see something live!
Matthew Epperson
DOC #284812
