There isn’t anything here you haven’t heard before. Consider it fair warning that likely there will be no incredible gems of wisdom to be gleaned from this note. A cliché is like an old, familiar blanket we wrap ourselves in to feel comfortable. We take comfort in a maxim that on some level makes sense; it’s been repeated ad nauseam and has become a part of our psyche. It is tempting to dismiss a cliché for those reasons. To do so however, we run the risk of missing some truths that can make for a richer life experience. I want to spend just a bit of time talking about life, death and failure.

“Live each day as if it’s your last. No one is promised tomorrow”. I am not certain those should be combined as one proper quote but we have all heard this (or some version of it) before. It is a cliché. Until it becomes relevant to you. Just yesterday I received news that one of my line brothers passed away. When confronted with the death of someone close it’s amazing how many emotions you process in a short time. Shock, sadness, confusion, and fear all come in ever increasing waves, which leave you disorientated, and searching for answers. Answers that will either never come or will fail to soothe the pain. Over the years I have lost friends to tragic circumstances. It’s always tragic when you are young and bursting with possibilities. It is never easy and each situation carries its own burden, its own weight, and its own terrible uniqueness. I now bear the weight of missed opportunity and a deep abiding regret at not having forged more regular connections with my line brother. A regret intensified by the certain knowledge that it is now too late. I failed to heed the simple lesson of the cliché offered above. I know my time here on Earth is finite but I behave as if it is not. I put things off for a tomorrow that might never come. My failure comes in not pushing harder to make these days sweet even when they appear to be intractably bitter. The bonds between my line brothers and myself were forged twenty-two years ago as young men pledging on Howard’s campus. The challenges and stresses we faced were only overcome because we sacrificed and loved each other as we loved ourselves. We became brothers all those years ago, committed to one another till death but in no way imagining death would claim one of us so soon. Where we once marched as ten we now stand as nine. There are difficult days of mourning ahead. But from the mourning comes new opportunities. There is fondness in the recollection of college days that swiftly pass. There is a chance to embody that cliché and live each day as if it’s your last. To is a chance to strengthen relationships that might have grown weak. To is a chance to forgive past slights to gain a lighter spirit. To is a chance to love each other messily and completely because we are not promised tomorrow but we are here today.

Dedicated to my line brother Snirly “Chuck” Simpson 5-Beta-92