Roots

 It had been a few weeks since I'd spoken to Louis on the phone, so needless to say I was stunned when I got a Facebook message from a former student telling me that my friend had died. To be honest, I didn't believe him at first. As far as I knew, Louis had been in reasonably good health...and this former student was living in Denver. How could he know this ahead of me when I lived in Louisville with Louis? But of course that was just denial. I still had to find an obituary online before it really sank in. And because this was still during the COVID lockdown, there was no funeral, no memorial.

The former student told me that he wanted to do something in memory of Louis, and he proposed reading a book together and asked if I had any suggestions. That was an easy one. Louis had shown the mini-series Roots every year that I'd known him when he was teaching...and that was a couple of decades' worth of knowing. So I suggested it, warning FS that it was a long book. He was undaunted, and so we started in on it.

I'd suggested we go for 5 chapters a week. FS kind of agreed, but pretty soon we were putting away a lot more than that, and before too long we had finished the book. It was a powerful read, for sure. I tried to watch the mini-series, too, but it was just so watered down from the book's contents that I couldn't stick with it. Maybe once the memory of the books has faded I can go back to it.

Anyway...I decided that I would launch my copy of Roots back out into the universe, so I made the trip up to the Little Library in my neighborhood. First I wrote a note in the front of it:

If you don't recognize it, the quote is from Star Trek. Well, the sentiment is, anyway. The language is a bit warmer in this version. But it's what the dying Spock says to Kirk...and of course its emotional power is enhanced by the fact that Spock seldom expresses anything that could be called human emotion. But it's more than that, too, to me. It's an acknowledgement of a bond that goes beyond time, beyond life, beyond everything.

I think about Louis every day. In fact, he is the featured player in the prayer for blessings that I say every night. Down on my knees, just like in the old days. And I miss Louis every single day, too, but I know that he had a very strong hold on his Christian faith, and there's no doubt in my mind that if there is a heaven, he's in it...being loud and having fun.

I checked back a couple of days later, and Roots was gone. 

Good.

Good.