The Last Viewing

Our lives are not our own. We like to think that we are, and our western culture celebrates rugged individualism, but we live our lives connected to various groups. Many groups we are born into and some we chose. We begin life supported by others and over the course of our lives we help others on their paths. First Lieutenant Nainoa K. Hoe lived his true life, knowing the risks but believing in the cause. The chance encounter between his father and the army nurse who treated the lieutenant in his final moments illustrates all the ways that were connected. In this case the father was able to comfort the nurse that she should not feel burdened that she wasn’t send him home alive. The father laughed because her story confirmed that she was there and reminded the father of something the son had shared from working with his platoon. We’re all connected. Do you have memories of someone who isn’t with us, that another friend of that person would immediately recognize? We keep each other alive when we share our memories of those close to us.

The Last Viewing - StoryCorps — The Last Viewing – StoryCorps

Today’s prompt definitely led me down a rabbit hole… I met Creagan in the third grade, back then we all knew him as Ed. My family had just moved to Mission Viejo and I recognized him on the bus to school as being one of the kids in my class. That was all it took to start our lifelong friendship. So one trait that those who knew Creagan/Ed might recognize was that when he’d begin some story he would rub the end of his nose with his hand. I don’t know what that was about, but he did it all the time. That’s just one quirk, oh yeah, and if he was mad at me, he’d call me “Joseph” as if that would stop me from doing whatever stupid thing I was doing.

Sadly he suffered a stroke or aneurism in 2015 and all I have now is a lot of memories and conspiratorial smiles. I did a podcast episode dedicated to him: JBB’s Final Thoughts Ep. 22: This Ain’t Goodbye: Edward “Creagan” Charles McConnell 1958 – 2015. Please check it out. This seems to be an ongoing reminder that we need to express our emotions and connections to one another while we can because the future is brutal when it comes to severed ties, and as one gets older there are fewer and fewer with whom I have these shared memories. We have so little time, don’t waste it on trivial bullshit. Love one another.