In Memorium by Bob Randolph

He's gone home

Today is the 19th of October. Harold went
home Sunday, during the night. He was a
giant among us.

He came from an historic and ancient valley in
Alabama. We never knew much about his early
life. We just knew that he was in a military
family, so he came to know almost every place
on the earth. This was also true for so many of
us, but none of us saw the invisible truths as
well as he did. He was able to contribute
something truthful about almost everything, no
matter what century it was in. He would know
why Julius Caesar was murdered by the
Brutuses of Rome, why the rainstorms were so
great in his Alabama valley in October of 1983,
way more than in the 3 years before, how
astronomers could tell when eclipses of the sun
would occur and where. It seemed important
about every subject imaginable. And he was
always modest. He knew so he would share it. It
was that simple.

He made his living knowing why creeks ran as
fast as they did, and how one human being
could move a 30-ton boulder into place at the
edge of the creek near the trees.

There have been many giants throughout
history. They all died, and they are all
remembered, as though they were still alive. It
is true that immortality exists; whenever they
touched lives 2 at a time or a million at a time,
they are all still alive.

Harold is in our memories, will always be
alive, and because of him, that he was in our
lives, we slowly become more able to think
and remember and share like him.

Let us remember, as he would have, that death
is a part of life, and that life is a part of the
eternity we join when our time on this tiny
planet is ended.

He will always be with us, on this corner. Let us
greet him here, each morning in the years we
have left.


Oct. 19, 2009


Bob Randolph