Today is World AIDS Day... again. A time to focus once again on a world tragedy and to remember those who have left us by this most courageous route. I like to think of the souls who left us in that first frightening decade as first-wave angels. Those who were lucky enough to go through it with eyes wide open, were able to face the molecular rearranging that the experience held. Many who lived superficial lives were given the opportunity to access a deeper part of themselves and come through with a very great gift indeed.
My friend George Coleman, who was a co-editor at Putnam for years before he passed on, spoke volumes when he told me, "Religion has take our Spirituality away from us. AIDS has given it back to us again." AIDS has give Spirtuality back to many of us...AIDS patients as well as loved ones looking on.
The whole experience has had the effect of a spiritual boot-camp in which many were trained to look at the world through new eyes. These are lessons that others are just now entering upon. When 9/11 happened, there was a sense in which many affected by AIDS had already "been there, done that." Not the event itself, but the dealing with the situation. The ground work had already been laid for coping with such things. We had been to hell and back and thus were not taken totally off guard to find ourselves at the doorway once more.
For this, I am greatful for the experience of front row, center seat to the AIDS drama. I did not carry AIDS in my physical body, but only in my spiritual body. Billy did the hands on work of surviving. I got to watch. We were in it together in some strange way. When he left the world in 1992, I got to stay here without him, but WITH the fortitude that the experience afforded. I doubt I am the only one. I also doubt that AIDS is the only means to this kind of fortitude... this kind of spiritual preparation that makes it possible to face the many challenges of these changing times.
So this is my salute to all of you...wherever you may find yourselves. First-wave angels and those who benefitted by their lives and deaths. You are not forgotten. Your gifts to us remain. We continue to live our lives with the strength you gave us... the strength we gave OURSELVES because of the dance you chose to dance. We love you and thank you and heed your very compelling challenge to..."Carry on."
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