Funerals

[JoshuaTree]

A topic that I have intimate familiarity with - now just over two years to the day...

I lost my friend Amanda in a single vehicle (i.e. motorcycle) wreck. She was riding on the back of someone's bike - getting a ride home from work, and the details are not really known, but she died.

Her father and mother, while not "anti-motorcycle" were not really crazy about them or her riding on one. I knew this, yet I also knew Amanda's thoughts on how to live your life.

I took my truck to the funeral (I was giving a ride to another of Amanda's friends), but rode to the 'after party'. Her husband rides, and for the first time that day, when he saw me ride up - he smiled. I'm told that before I got there, that the gathering was maudlin in tone - after I rode up and stayed a while, it turned into the sort of gathering that Amanda would have insisted on. Live life as if every day was your last - some day you'll be right.

I knew that Amanda would have wanted me to ride, and for Brad to keep on riding as well. A week after she passed, Brad climbed back on his bike for the first time, and rode with me to get dinner on my birthday.

I live so that I can ride. I ride so that I can live.

"Love Much, Laugh Often". Yes Amanda, I obey.