Memorial

The following is from the program for the memorial service held last Friday for my friend Dwight Ozard, who passed away Nov. 14.

If you remember me, remember too those born into death and suffering who literally have no one in this world who even knows their name, let alone someone to breathe it in prayer to God. That process of making my cancer a chance to help others expand their world — to begin to think about issues of justice and suffering and who has a part in that suffering, both as creator and as potential reliever of it — that process, that ministry, has been pure gift to me, a chance, as the rock star has said, to make "beauty out of ugly things."

And that's pretty freakin' cool.

He stood with the weak, when he could only kneel
He called us to speak, when he lost his voice
He introduced us to those we did not know
He asked us to pray and we did

Either way, we want to just make the most out of this thing, to use a metaphor that I'm certain is inappropriate, given my disease, to suck the marrow out of the bones of life, to live deeply and without reservation, hesitation or fear. To breathe deep the air of spring and the breath of God, to savor the depths of flavors and the best of God's good earth and to "taste and see" the goodness of God, to hold the things that matter close to the heart, to treasure the hard parts of loving and frolic like a 4-year-old in a mud puddle in the good, easy parts.

Don't waste this thing. It's too good.