Day 97. (7/4/19)

The day started badly. A facebook notification that a friend, somebody who I knew on social media and from a few telephone calls we'd had but hadn't met in 'the real world', had passed away.

I won't go into detail. It's not my place to talk about him in depth. There are eulogies and tributes from those who knew him far better than I. And all their posts, all their comments, say the same thing, say the thing that I knew and would say: he was a good man. A writer, a poet, a man who supported and helped others. A passionate man, a man who believed in doing the right thing, in justice. And he was gone far too soon, far too young.

Another sadness in a year that seems intent to hit us so much of it.

We've no idea what life is going to present us with. We've no idea how long we have. The only control we have is over what we fill our time with.

Our friend, the friend of so many of us, had filled his time with words, with music, with helping and caring.

It seems facile to comment on the following but while on Facebook earlier I noticed, from a 'this day in music' type post that on this day in 1966 The Beatles were in the studio working on Tomorrow Never Knows and Got To Get You Into My Life for the Revolver album.

A decent day, that.

A day whose work will live for the ages.

And this is what it's all about in the end. Leave something behind. Leave something that says that you were here and you did something that brought joy to others.

It doesn't matter how many people you bring that joy to; one or millions, the scale is unimportant. The fact that you did it is all that matters.

You don't have to be The Beatles. That's not the aim, most people will never make that mark. But if you can support one person, write a poem that speaks to a room, a song that one heart will embrace, a book whose message will reach a readership of however many find it, a play, a film, a TV show, some education, some management, a guiding hand somewhere, a conversation, a good thought, some help, every one of these things will help somebody. You may not notice the help, you may never learn of the effect you have but we're not in this for reward or praise, we're here to help each other through the time we have in this very small world.

Just keep doing good, keep being yourself, keep on keeping on.

(Soundtrack, if it matters, for this was mostly Sonic Youth's exceptional cover of 'Within You, Without You' "We were talking about the space between us all." Close the space, step closer to people, bridge the gap with one kind word. "With our love we could save the world."

And the playlist I'm listening to that song on follows that with Richie Havens covering 'Here Comes The Sun".)