A Little Bit of Sadness

This is my cousin Devin, who died a little over a month ago. This post may come as a surprise to those of you who noticed that my posts generally are made up of pictures...I rarely wax verbose :) But I decided today to write about this. Devin was 19, just a few months older than me. He was one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met, although you couldn't see it if you judged him by his hair...once I saw him after he'd been living in Washington for a few years--he climbed out of the car sporting a large neon-green mowhawk. He was always experimenting with his hair. It seemed almost like a test with him; to see if people could see past the hair and get to know him. Before moving to Washington he was Daryl's best friend.

His dad, my uncle David was over here last night and he gave us these bracelets he'd had made--they're like the yellow "live strong" arm bands but they're black and they're worn in memory of Devin. He told us about the plan for Devin's headstone, they found a poem called "There are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves", and they're going to put one verse on the headstone.

It goes like this:

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who prey upon them with IBM eyes

And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.

There are men too gentle for a savage world

Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween

And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws

And murder them for a merchant's profit and gain.

There are men too gentle for a corporate world

Who dream instead of candied apples and ferris wheels

And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who devour them with eager appetite and search

For other men to prey upon and suck their childhood dry.

There are men too gentle for an accountant's world

Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass

And search for beauty in the mystery of the sky.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

Who toss them like a lost and wounded dove.

Such gentle men are lonely in a merchant's world,

Unless they have a gentle one to love.

(Don't worry, this is the whole thing, not the one verse)

I was going to go on about death and some of the sad things that happen, but how I'm so grateful for the gospel and knowing that there's always hope, but I think that's a long enough post already. There's nothing I could say that does Devin justice, or would allow those of you who never met him to know how great he was, but I'm grateful I knew him and I'm grateful to know I'll see him again. I love my family.