We hold onto our memories. We have to. And there is one little tangible memory of Jim that I always loved. It may have been in a 7th grade art class that he created a "trophy" to commemorate one of his many passions...hockey. I remember when he brought it home...It was evident that I was much more impressed with his work than he was. I loved this little cardboard trophy...all three tiers! It was a collage of hockey's greatest stars at the time. I never really looked at it too closely, but I always complimented him on it. When it finally fell apart, he tossed it away and I immediately recovered it from the rubbish. Again, he tossed it and again I told him how much it meant to me. I managed to put it in the back of a closet where it stayed for the next several years. Not too long ago, on a Saturday lost in memories, the little "trophy" made it's way to the surface and it was wonderful! It was now in two pieces...the yellowed pictures of a very youthful Mario curling at their corners. This time, I really looked at it...inspecting every little detail! There it was...like a page from Jimmy's younger life and I was sure there was a message for me! After all, hadn't I retrieved it a half a dozen times, just so...I could find it one Spring day...two years after the fact? I looked at it this time and saw a poem he had painstakingly cut out and glued to the top tier. A perfect poem. We all have our own beliefs...and even when we are certain we have "life" figured out, something quite unexpected happens and very quickly, we can change our minds. My mind has changed. I have learned beginnings and endings are one and the same...One thing starts when another ends...and nothing ends without something beginning. I've come to learn this from Jim and I am grateful. The little poem that was randomly placed on a cardboard trophy in 1994 had been used in a Bauer Hockey equipment commercial in 1972.
Last week it touched my heart...
~~~
If I give you a clean sheet
what will you write?
Will your words be long and
graceful or short and sweet?
Will it be poetry or
brute instinct?
If you have something to say
best say it now
for soon, always too soon
my sheet will be filled
and this chapter will end
as sure as the next will begin,
with a clean sheet
new authors
and a million
possibilities.
~~~
Jim and Darrin put in some long hours this day preparing for their Senior Project. They were the chefs in the kitchen and knew exactly what they were doing!
