I'm Thankful Kurt was my brother

11/27/2006

Today is Kurt’s 48th birthday.  And although I miss him now and I wish he were here with us, I am tremendously thankful he was with me for so many years.  I only wish....  we were closer than we were; that I did more for him than I did; that I was his chosen friend rather than his brother. He couldn’t choose his brother, but I hope I was the brother he would choose. I wish many things.

I’m posting some pictures of his redwood tree, taken during my visit earlier this year.  Kurt would catch every chance to visit the redwoods and look up toward the sky beyond them.  They were his cathedral he said. He was all about majesty and cathedrals.

I was surprised when I had the opportunity to walk around his tree and really look at it from every angle.  It is the home to so many things.  I was particularly struck by the spider webs forming tiers like a high rise up the backside of the tree as far as the eye can see. A spider sky rise; each floor is a penthouse.  My picture can’t do justice. 

One of my sister’s favorite stories about Kurt involves a spider. Perhaps the spiders on his tree know the story of a certain Kurt and a certain spider in a certain house near Seattle. In cleaning her house Lucy encountered the louse (the arachnid in question); unexpected; unwanted; doomed without question.  Each leg of eight lives might have otherwise been plied to a vacuum’s inside were it not for the insistence of Kurt.  He showed the spider outside, thus saving its hide, and insisted my sister reflect its existence.

He sure was a great guy to talk to.  I’d like to talk with him now.