Andy: Next Chapter

Had a little verbal skirmish last night. Andy, my best friend died, not unexpectedly, early yesterday morning. Walking home after the argument I went through my own version of grief. My second step was an apology to Andy for losing my cool. (The lost
cool” being the first step.) No doubt there will be more agitatah and more apologizes in the near future.

I should have learned in our two years of discussions, that included coffees & a shared cookie, better strategies. Andy would have argued that winning is not the objective, resolution is. Maybe when my hearing grows overwhelmingly impaired, so that I wont hear someone’s angry remarks, I will reach that advanced state of enlightenment?

Long before I went to bed I had established my loss. All those conversations, including the ones that we never had, soothed my disquiet, so that I focused on what would no longer be part of my life. But in so doing I was led through all those: Fareed interviews we had both watched, the humor we shared three or four mornings a week with the “girls” at the Starbuck bar at the Del, the agreement on international problems, the attractiveness of a passing female, and a decision as to weather (was it a top 10 day or merely just superb?).

I hope to keep memories, however inaccurate, of our two years as loving best friends.