Our family is groping through the darkness, trying to reorient ourselves after the sudden loss of my luminous cousin, David, on October 28th.
(You may remember David from this post about the morning I spent with him leading up to his wedding.)
I've never known anybody with a laugh quite so infectious, an aliveness quite so intense. He was deep and he was light and it's perhaps his mastery of those two extremes that most fascinated me about him.
My cousin believed that life is "the soul's playground"...a RIDE between the nursery and the morgue.
He used to ask, "Are you enjoying the ride?"
It brings us comfort to know he packed more living into his 39 years than most could pack into two hundred.
My father said it best when he said:
"We've had SO many wonderful relatives and friends send their condolences and love to our family. For that we are eternally thankful, and that is an incredibly helpful ingredient in our healing process.
But there are a lot of people here today [at his services or on this web page] who never met David. You are here because you are sorry for our loss.
We are sorry for YOU, because you didn't have the pleasure of knowing one of our favorite people."
It's been really moving to see how many people have stepped forward since David's death to say, "that man changed my life."
I wrote the eulogy below in an attempt to preserve some of the big ideas David lived by...ideas he was always so enthusiastic about sharing.
I would like David's message to continue on and to spread as far as possible, which is why I've elected to record and share the eulogy here.
For those who have loved David: may this eulogy help you cope.
For those with the misfortune of never having known him: may this eulogy help you live.
Intense love,
Bethany