The link is Muff/Ivan.
Some people weave in and out of our lives. We don't know why nor does it matter why, they are just there. Like the tide going in and out or like a season that comes and goes these people give us so very good gift if we want them or not.
We all have many people like this in our lives. Our souls meet and touch from time to time. The truth is they are always there. They are always a part of us. We know each other's souls with no effort. It just happens. It just is.
My friend Jodi is like that. She and many others in my life who make my life better. Some make it what I think is worst but in long run of time they are really for the better too.
Jodi lives on the other side of the continent from me. She is in sunny day land. I live in the mountains and snow and fast summers.
A person doesn't have to be in the same neck of the woods to weave in and out of your life. A person doesn't have to be 24/7. They are always there if you like it or not. I gave up running years ago.
Somewhere back in time in the frozen mountains in New Hampshire live me at the same time as Jody. We would pass each other smile, see each other in the store or wandering on campus or at a loose gathering called a party out of nowhere it just happened an hour ago.
The link is Muff/Ivan the terrible/the brother with the big flat African feet.
If it had not been for my friend Cherryl who had a crush on someone named Billy maybe I won't have ended up at the party where Billy and Muff and Steve were all going to Canada for a few days.
In those times we all jumped in the car and sent anywhere. That was just how it was. We stayed on a farm. It was good to have clean air. Downstate NY doesn't have very clean air. We played Frisbee and laughed and came home.
A few months went by. Ivan/Muff and Steve were on the corner and said something about a place up in New Hampshire.
Time and places can change a life. Sometimes only 2 minutes or sometime years can change a person and put them on a path they might have never been on.
And so for the next few years after that, I lived in the frozen north along with a small student body and most everyone there was looking for something.
During those years the wind and the snow and the hot summers craved me. We all were. We are still learning life's lessons.
When I got to New Hampshire I ran into Ivan/Muff who said he was Muff now. That was also part of the times. Names can and went. Most of us didn't know any one's real name until we were in our 30's. That is those of us who lived that love to tell the story of the traveling names. Fuel was cheap and so were cars and travel was easy.
Everyone lived with Muff at one time. Muff on the floor, Muff on the sofa, Muff in a chair, Muff in your car, we all lived with Muff. Our lives are much richer from it.
Yesterday a million light years forward an email came from Jody. She had run into David who I went to grammar school and high school with. Jody turns up knowing David. I still know many people I went to grammar school with. There is a bond there no matter what.
This just proves we are all part of each other. Some parts we like others we don't but we are all a part.
This link is Muff.
Muff lived his life like he knew. Muff's deep love was his grandmother. He lived on her floor too. Down in NYC Muff's grandmother took them all in and all of Muff's friends all slept on her floor. He lived life like he knew. We can look back on these things and say ‘oh there it was' and why couldn't we see it at the time?
Muff loved everyone like he loved his grandmother. His grandmother loved like she was Mother Africa herself. We all come from Africa no matter out color. Africa is everyone's mother. We all need to give her more respect. Mother Africa gave us all life.
Muff's feet were made for walking.
There was Alexis also blown into the frozen snow world. Alexis was beautiful. Men in my culture and country are afraid to be beautiful. Alexis was beautiful. He was Brazil. He was a truly tortured soul. Most of us are but Alexis was beautiful and tortured. How rare that is for men in my country. In my culture it is called not manly. That is not true. Other cultures men are very beautiful. They are very manly.
One thing I never believed was Alexis's rant about hating ‘Negros'. I think he just said it for attention. Most bigots I know are very ignorant stereo types like the ones who dress in hoods and burned down my father's boatyard and made up rumors and lies about me and my family because my family was friends with Jake Lawrence whose paintings now hang in the White House. No Alexis wasn't like that at all, he was dark and beautiful.
Alexis and Muff were friends. Yes Alexis loved the tall African. We all come from Africa. Africa is everyone's mother.
Muff and Alexis both disappeared down a black hole. They found the event horizon on junk. I would see Muff less and less and one day I couldn't feel his life, I felt his soul watching and caring for us all and he is there on the other side. Muff was a door opener. Maybe he will open the door to the other side.
The link still lives on.
We are all part of a big everybody. We are all links. When we are children we are part of a big everybody. We grown up and add more every bodies. One day we look around and wonder where did everybody go? We start to look for them
The more we look the more we find, we never lost everybody, they are only a link away.