Sorrow is the most thorough of teachers. She is quick to point out where you did right and to inflict pain on the areas which were made to feel impermeable because of the strength that comes with a love shared. Sorrow is a celebration of all that we had and a mourning of all that we lost.

Sorrow is a privilege reserved for those who took the risk and decided to share of themselves. It is not for the apathetic, the languid, or the indifferent. It is a gift bestowed upon the creatures who care. It is for those who have made an investment and sacrificed of themselves to better something or someone in exchange for a betterment of themselves. It is a recipe that requires vulnerability, uncertainty, and courage. Sorrow is not a punishment but a badge. It is the reward that comes with risking your heart and putting it on the line only to have it someday be broken in exchange for the feeling of being fully alive.

To truly hurt is to have truly cared. When others hurt for you, it is because you have achieved a level of envy and respect. Sorrow often involves a teacher, a student, and, unfortunately, a subject. There is not much that can be learned about love nor loss without the experience of sorrow.

When you really care about someone, you become a teacher, whether you sign up for it or not. When you demonstrate what it looks like to love your partner, you attract a silent audience who admires you, mimics you, looks up to you, and wants to be more like you.

To watch someone experience sorrow, first-hand, is to experience the dress rehearsal of the stage which all of us will at some point occupy. As a student, I am fortunate to watch what I believe to be the world’s greatest teacher experience the world’s most painful of sorrows on a stage that involves the props of reality, a script filled with joy, a tale intertwined with laughter and sadness, and an audience filled with love. You both put on an amazing performance.

My friend lost his friend. I lost a friend. My friends lost their friend. We all feel sorrow for our friend.

I am privileged to have friends who hurt, friends who care enough to feel the pain that comes with loss, and friends who are willing to share the pain of what it looks like to love and experience loss.

There is strength in sorrow shared and all who experience it are stronger for it.

Thank you both for being teachers, role models, and leaders. I am better for having known both of you.

Please know that we all care.

Peace, Love, and all things Beef related,

Beefcake