Pt. Deux: [Beine] We're Going 2 Miss You

When princess said that, “Death comes to all”,  and that it touches every single one of us, and that it claims all of us sooner or later, I had no friggin’ idea that I would be writing something like this so soon…

…YOU WILL BE MISSED…

(1) “To die is the greatest adventure”

I remember hearing someone say. I Cant for the life of me, however, remember who or from where. And the thing is, for some; it just may be…if you believe in Heaven and the angels and in Jesus and the redemption of souls through the shedding of his blood, that is. But otherwise, death pretty much sucks. And even if you do believe in all of that, it doesn’t make it any less scary.
It could come at any time, it doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you have or how much clout or faith you think you have, death doesn’t discriminate. all she has to do is wave her hand and just like that- youre gone, like the dissipating smoke of a freshly blown out candle.
And forget all that cinematic crap, death isnt like that, all guns blazing and going out with flames of glory. Death is ugly, cold and unrepentant.
And its even worse when it claims someone you know. Some one who you rubbed shoulders with, someone who may have fallen off of your radar for a bit but someone who you will always harbour fond memories of. Why? Because it reminds you that youre not immortal after all. That your life will end. And that your time here on earth does in fact have an expiration date. Maybe its just me but that’s not at all a comforting thought to have to sit with…

…HELL, IT’S DOWN RIGHT SCARY…

(2) “Death takes the good, too good to stay, And leaves the bad, too bad to take away…”

Beine Rwamirama was a good guy. The type of guy that everybody loved. I remember even in my so called “not-so-cool days” he would always go out of his way to talk to me.
*A small smile, a small sigh*
He was always one of the cool kids, one of the ones who didn’t even have to try but just were, and it always made me feel just that much cooler by just having him talk to me. Even if it was just to say hey…

He was always the industrious type. He could make a dollar out of a dime when he didn’t even have a cent. And with everything he got, he was always generous. He knew how to take care of his own…

He was confident. He had this self assured, “who’s the boss? I’m the boss” swagger that I always admired.
“I wish I had that”, I remember telling myself…

He was a leader. People just seemed to follow him. He led, people followed. That was just the way it was…

I’m not going to pretend that he was perfect though, because he wasn’t. none of us are. But the thing is, he meant a whole lot to a whole lot of people and I think it’s only right that we celebrate his life. NOT pick through it, looking for signs or indications that may or may not have been previously ignored and that will now probably cause us to beat ourselves over the head in the subsequent days, weeks and months.
I’m also, however, not going to pretend that Beine and I were particularly close. because we weren’t. but you see the thing is, whenever I met him, whenever we ran into eachother, he always made me feel as if we were. And so I’m going to miss him. As I’m sure a lot of us will.
And so now I sit here with my bottle of liquor. Thinking on things of which I have little understanding. On life and on death. On angels and on heaven. On devils and on hell, and on the enigma that is; why the good die young and the bad live long…

And I think of Beine.
And as I do, I kiss the lips of the bottle in my hand, say a silent prayer and pour out that liquor and watch it as it kisses the ground…