In this electronic age we can reconnect with old friends at the push of a button. We can "find" people we lost touch with. Sometimes, when timing and luck are on our side we get to arrange " realtime facetime" with people we haven't seen in years.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet up with an old friend from my youth - to see him again after a couple of decades and meet his wife. Funny how lost years can fade. Though we are both older and wiser, we found that at heart we were still the same people - good friends who just lost touch for a while. I had a similar experience a few weeks back with a friend from high school. The two of us will also be reuniting face-to-face as soon as we can arrange to.
But at times we aren't so lucky with our online searches. Sometimes the people we look for are beyond seeking. Some of those we miss continue to live on only in our memories. We may find only online "evidence" that these friends once lived - a photograph, an obituary; a name on a quilt.
I've lost a couple of people who really mattered to me over the years to deaths that could have/should have been prevented. Both died too young - their deaths haunt me. When I think of the years those friends lost, and the experiences they missed, it spurs me on in my fight to make this crazy world a little more user-friendly...
Life is too short. We don't have time to be unforgiving or hold grudges. We need to fight harder to be inclusive - there are a lot of lonely people out there, and people who don't think, act, or live their lives the way we do. Battle your inner demons - the ones that might tell you that you're excused from caring about those deemed "too different" or "too damaged". Love them anyway. Be prepared to fight for the underdog and the unloved, the abused and the depressed.
Today, I dedicate this poem to those who lost battles, and to those who, like me, continue to "fight the good fight".
I Fight
I fight constant temptation
and battle with my will -
I fight to rein in temper
when patience has its fill.
I fight my inner dragons -
the demons of my soul;
and struggle with inertia
when I have set a goal.
On battlefields aplenty
I've stood with sword and shield -
waged war on foe unnumbered,
and still refused to yield.
Through minefields of opinion
where mercy was not shown
I've skirmished pride and ego -
sometimes it was my own.
I've felt arrows of malice -
and aimed my share as well -
seen comrades stained with envy
and known its putrid smell.
I've tried to rally soldiers
who could no longer fight -
and stood among the fallen
who felt death's icy bite.
And though 'oft disillusioned
by what those battles cost,
I'll cede no territory -
my cause is not yet lost.
I'll fight to keep believing
in love and hope and peace -
I'll fight for truth and reason,
and strength - 'til battles cease.
Sharon Flood Kasenberg, 2011
