All of us had been tinkering around with the idea of forming a giant friends reunion for the last couple of years-but with all of the crazy things that have gone on lately, we’d found ways out of it.  Now, according to Doug, we’ll at least have on in his honor.  But I wish it weren’t like that.  He should be there in the flesh-not in memory.  He should be there to laugh and shrug when we retell the age-old story of him getting caught in the barbwire fence at the midwinter retreat when everybody snuck out to have a water gun and shaving cream fight once the camp councilors went to bed.  Because Bartman was heavy, he got snagged and couldn’t scale the fence so the boys-loyal as always-left him out there to get caught by the councilors.  They all served everybody breakfast and sing us a song the next morning.  We were almost banned from that retreat.  It was so funny-and Bartman loved that story-one of his many proud moments.

Bartman-while I’m not “a believer”, if there is any chance that your life’s energy is still condensed down to the identity that you once had in the ethereal cosmos-you will be missed.