Keith and Willie

Other than one particular Group, I am not on Facebook all that much but today I had call to try and track someone down.  In doing so, I ended up at the Facebook Group site for my old alma mater, The Anglo-American School in Stockholm Sweden, my educational home from 1970-75.  It is now the International School of Stockholm.

I quickly came across the news of the passing of two old friends from half a century ago.  They had good lives with challenges and passed with many who loved them.  

Since they were part of my life back in the dark pre-internet days, I kept up with both of these fellows by mail and word of mouth among shared friends for a few years after Sweden but then between international relocations and college and life, we lost touch.

When the internet came along 2000-2010, we reconnected and touched base every few years.  One was in Oregon and the other in Utah and though I travelled a great deal, our paths never physically crossed again after Sweden.  As little as there was; a couple of years of friendship in Sweden as boys and very intermittent contact after that, I am deeply saddened by their passing.

They were an important part of my life and I will miss that they are no more.  

John Donne captures it.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

Keith died earlier this year, 2024 and Willie died in 2023.  I am diminished.  

I have the memories in which they will always be 12 years old with me.  Shoveling snow, playing ping pong, commuting together on the bus, competing in class, playing sports together, listening to one another's albums.  Visiting one another's homes, going to dances at school, playing cards, slushing through the snow, talking for the five cold blocks from the bus to school, reading each others comics.   

As an empirical rationalist with strong stoical tendencies I am averse to maudlin thinking.  But still. Childhood friends are deep roots to have removed.  

I am out driving, on a chore, soon after becoming aware of their passing, when the Mood Blues's Are You Sitting Comfortably comes up.  How serendipitous.  

Are You Sitting Comfortably

The Moody Blues

Take another sip my love and see what you will see,

A fleet of golden galleons, on a crystal sea.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Let Merlin cast his spell.

Ride along the winds of time and see where we have been,

The glorious age of Camelot, when Guinevere was Queen.

It all unfolds before your eyes

As Merlin casts his spell.

The seven wonders of the world he'll lay before your feet,

In far-off lands, on distant shores, so many friends to meet.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Let Merlin cast his spell.

The Moody Blues were one of my favorite bands and so we listened to my albums just as I listened to the albums of their favorite bands.  We would have all heard this song together in one of our rooms in winter in Stockholm those many decades ago.  

I have especially liked Are You Sitting Comfortably because it evokes the recognition that we create much of our own reality.  In your mind, that fleet of golden galleons, on a crystal sea is real to the extent that you wish it to be.  And in far-off lands, on distant shores, there are still so many friends to meet.  Including some that have gone ahead.

So now Keith and Willie live on in my memory, forever young.  And missed for now.

Double click to enlarge.