what’s good
March 2, 2006Tonight, we came together to share our grief, love and memories of Eddie. There were a couple hundred people there of all ages, races and faiths, huddled together in the pews of the church, arms around each other and heads bowed low.
I realized as I listened to their touching, inspiring and even funny stories about Eddie that I didn’t know him very well. And although I wish I did, I am also just glad to know that there are people like him out in the world. Unassuming 15-year-old boys who work and play hard, whose joy for life is contagious and motivating.
I kept thinking about how many other amazing people there must be hidden beneath the seas of faces I see day after day. I will never know every single one—If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll get to know an itty bitty fraction of them—but at least I know they’re out there. You’re out there.
Apparently, Eddie had a lot of gimmicks. A lot of repeat jokes, a lot of nicknames for people and a lot of phrases that just stuck. One of them, my favorite, was “What’s good?” He often started conversations that way, and it got people to think past the bad and the ugly to the good and the beautiful. I guess Eddie, the lessons he taught, the lives he touched and the laughs he got are what’s good.
I'm Christine, and this is a slice of my life—a sweet, rich, wildly indulgent slice that would taste really good with a scoop of Breyers vanilla bean ice cream. Read more >>
I run a darling, friendly, little graphic design studio.
I look on the bright side.
I take photos. Lots of photos.
I wish on stars and on websites.
I built my first web site 7 years ago and got 15 seconds of fame. (It changed my life.)
I launched, then relaunched, an online magazine.
I admitted to several embarrassing crushes.
I consumed more bacon than any human should and lived to tell the tales.
It’s funny how sometimes I come across a little tidbit here and there that is exactly what I need to make it through the day: “What’s good?” That is a question I’m going to start asking more often, because as you said, it will help me to look past the “bad and ugly to the good and the beautiful” Thanks for sharing!
xoxo
Sarah
one of my friends committed suicide this year. i wasn’t close to her, but i knew her. when someone you know personally dies, you suddenly realize just how HUGE that is. people have died before, but when asya died, it hit me that a human life–an entire human life–someone who breathed, laughed, walked, talked, loved, hated–is gone.
makes you want to love every single person out there.
i have no idea what to say about events like this. they are heartbreaking and incomprehensible.
maybe death casts a strong light on people though. it helps us to see the deepest, most beautiful qualities of the people who brush our lives. i can see them in eddie now and i have only ever seen eddie through you.
Christine,
I just want to say that I am so sorry for your loss.
It’s been nearly ten years since my best friend died equally unexpectedly and it’s still this heavy thing I carry inside me. And still I would be a different me without experiencing it.
“What’s good”
– that is a good way to go by each day.
hugs, Emma
What’s good? A play date for tea and scones or paper supplies and cupcakes with you! :)
hello i just came across your page. my little brother knew eddie, they had class together at samo. he was killed right near my old house. it makes me feel so much better to read this and know so many people care and have been so kind and supportive. thank you so much for sharing :)
love, rebecca
life is beautiful :)