It’s about 10:30 on a quiet Friday evening. Diane is out with our friend Anne at a play. Max is playing guitar (beautifully) and Gabe just came in with his friend Trevor. I’m trying to find something to feed the kids for dinner., 10:30 dinners feels almost like normal… I’ll take that as a plus.
I had lots of Sam stuff going today.. This morning started with a conference call between me, my good friend Jim and his friend John on the topic of our planned work trip to Nicaragua in Sam’s honor. John is an engineer (I think) from Ga Tech who decided it was more fun and fulfilling to help folks in Central America. He and his family started going down to the west coast of Nicaragua in 1999 just after Hurricane Mitch. Shortly after that John created an organization called ‘Amigo’s for Christ’ that brings groups from the US down to rural Nicaragua every year to do service projects like digging latrines, building schools etc. Jim and John are going to help us organize a service trip sometime in mid/late August for us to go down and help. . I think it needs to be after Aug 17 for Max to be able to participate. I know you may be wondering what’s a nice Jewish boy like me doing volunteering for a program called “Amigo’s for Christ” ? Well after talking to John I’m assured that the work they do is basic people to people help with no religious bias. My ‘secular humanism’ will fit right in. The basic idea is to take a group of at least 10 people down for a week to construct something for a rural town. Adults and kids are welcome.. In addition to the work we’ll be doing along side local workers, we’ll also be visiting the beautiful beaches, volcanoes and rain forests. It’s a beautiful part of the world. This will be a once in a life time experience for anyone who participates.. I’ll fill folks in as the details firm up.. again.. please let me know if you think you might be interested in participating. I left the call with John and Jim really excited about this trip. I’m thankful that my buddy Jim came up with the idea.. B TW.. Jim’s getting his hip replaced on Tuesday.. he’s promised to save us the old one for soup.
Speaking of soup… I had lunch today with my friend Tom. Tom and his wife lost a son Mark about 8 years ago to cancer… Tom is one of the most interesting and self actualizing guys I know. I’d asked him to lunch to talk about how he and his family integrated Mark’s death and kept his memory alive It was good being able to talk to someone who has been through this experience… as Tom said today.. only someone who’s gone through losing a child truly understands what it’s like. It was a very upbeat and positive conversation.. We both enjoyed comparing notes on family, work, life perspective etc. There was even a certain strange fun in sharing stories of weird things people have said to us about our loss. Talking to Tom was definitely inspiring.
Towards the end of the day I stopped by my friend Beth’s house because our mutual friends Peter and Beth were up from New York . From there I went to Browns River Middle School to do Mad Science show for a group of Cub Scouts. It’s the first show that I’ve done since Sam died. I showed up at about 6 and there was my good,. good friend Ron. Ron and I have worked together for years.. our families have become very close. Ron had come out to give me moral support I the first show. I was glad he was there. It felt so strange getting set up for the show.. I kept thing about the times that Sam helped me put on the show when he was younger. It felt like getting back on the horse after being thrown. Right before it was time to start I had to leave the room to cry.. I did that for about 5 minutes.. then I was good to go. I was pretty choked up as I started the show and dedicated it to Sam.. Once I got started, though.. It just flowed out of me.. it felt wonderful to be zapping pickles and shocking kids again. I now know that I can keep doing this outreach which is truly my calling. I think this is one of the ways I can really honor Sam’s memory . Sam, I certainly felt you there tonight when the sparks were flying. I love you my energy boy.
-jc
