This guy greeted me on my last day of work at Allegra last Friday. He organized a whole going away party at noon where I got a full fledged send off from all the great people I’ve gotten to know over the past two years.
My high school buddy slash college roommate slash good friend, Corporal Kenny Butler, is in Afghanistan right now. It’s been amazing to be able to keep in touch with him online while he’s there, a little crazy too. We get to chat over IM like he’s at camp or something, but I love it. For instance, he told me he found a ridiculously cool fox-headed fur hat that he wished he would have bought.
I had seen the inset photo recently and sent it to him with the following text:
INFO
SUBJECT: ARMY COMBAT UNIFORM (ACU) ENSEMBLE1. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE IS TO ANNOUNCE IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CARE AND WEAR OF THE NEW WRINKLE-FREE, UNIVERSAL FLUFFY K-9 MOUNTAIN MAN ACU ENSEMBLE APPROVED BY THE CSA ON 21 JUL 10. POLICY CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
2. SO TUCK A PRETTY LITTLE FOX UP ON TO YOUR HEAD SOLDIER.
Then he sent me the picture above taken on the day he first saw the goofy hat. He said he might print them out to spread the word and I thought it would be fun to do the same. So if you’re at home or at work, you should download this little pdf of the instructions and print a copy. You don’t have to hang it up. Just print it out, look at it, and think good thoughts for Kenny in Afghanistan.
Oh, and before you ask, his gold tooth is real.
A friend of mine, Christian Cowie, passed away after succumbing to complications of his muscular dystrophy in the early morning of July 5th, 2010. He was a few weeks shy of his 27th birthday.
We spent our school days together, starting in the same second grade class at Bryant here in Helena and I had the good fortune to have my path cross with his a few times over the following years.
From those earliest days I can remember splashing around in the municipal pool together and dancing like crazy people on the low-pile carpet during classroom pizza parties. He seemed proud and annoyed in equal measure when his loving and proudly eccentric dad would come into class every year to give water color painting demonstrations. I remember him coming to a birthday party of mine with his brother Johnathan, they brought me a Ninja Turtle action figure that would sometimes do back flip. I can remember some lazy, summertime, pre-teen afternoons he would call and invite me to play at his house. He had a truly massive toy collection and always kicked my ass at any video game we played together. Once we were sufficiently bored of being inside we would go down to the corner store and buy ridiculous, gross out candy invented for boys just our age.
I remember how in middle school he hated the people he was forced to be with every day to the point of once getting into an unfair fist fight (he was palming a combination lock!) with another kid in the elevator between classes. He would lust openly after the most beautiful girls in class, writing them daring love letters and asking “to go out” point blank.
One noon hour we were eating lunch together and out of the blue he told me something about friendship that at the time made me wince with embarrassment. Between bites of French fries and chicken strips, he told me, “friendship is really a kind of love. And because we’re friends that means that we love each other. So really it’s not too weird so say I love you to each other.” Even though I didn’t say anything then, I knew he was right just as much as I know it now.
He was a good friend to me and even though it’s too late to tell him as much I’m glad to be able to acknowledge the impact he has had on my life.
I love you too Christian, and I will miss you very, very much.
I got a few yard chores checked off my list this weekend. I painted and restrung my clothes line (does it scream Caribbean?) and planted half my table garden. Later, I headed up to my parents’ house for Father’s Day had to take a moment consider all the weekends it must have taken to turn their little corner into such a beautiful space.
