Sad Farewells

         There is no greater tie than friendship. As Socrates faced the jury before his death, his final words were,"Thus we part and go our separate ways, you to live and I to die: which is better God only knows." This sad yet poignant parting years later prompted his devoted student Plato to say, "I thank God that I was born Greek and not a barbarian, freeman and not slave, man and not woman; but above all, I am thankful that I was born in the age of Socrates." What an inspiration! To think that one person can transform the life of another beyond all words and feelings.  To live and die by the truth within one's heart, and face death with courage and equanimity. What a dream such a life could be for any person! As it was said of the Thane of Cawdor, "nothing in his life  so  became him as the leaving of it."  The American Indians have a saying that a person lives his entire life to face the one moment of death with courage, that one moment which lives in the conscious life of individual from the events of his early manhood until the final hour of his death. As David faced his final hour, he told his son Solomon, "I am about to go the way  of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man." David's admonition to his son lived on his Solomon'every word and deed, just as Plato recalled the words of his mentor. The Hebrews have a saying:  "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17), and the Greeks have a comparable one: "One man and no man." Relationships bind our spirits eternally. It is our love that  lives on in the hearts and minds of others, not the achievements of men. Gilgamesh and Enkidu loved one another as brothers, and upon Enkidu's death,  Gilgamesh suffered and mourned, searching to the far ends of the earth for the spirit of his beloved. The story says, "So Enkidu lay stretched out before Gilgamesh; his tears ran down in streams, and he said, 'O my brother, so dear as you are to me, brother, yet they will take me from you. I must sit down on the threshold  of the dead and never again will I see my dear brother with my eyes." Gilgamesh,in his sorrow, cries out, "Hear me, great one of Uruk. I weep for Enkidu, my friend. Bitterly mourning like a woman mourning . . . All the people of Eridu weep for young Enkidu . . . What is this sleep that holds you now? Your are lost in the dark and cannot hear me." Gilgamesh mourned for seven days, then built a statue of Enkidu in gold and lapis lazuli in his honor. Each of us, at one time or another, has known someone long departed who continues to reach out to us even now, as we remember and cherish those irretrievable moments lost to us forever. Facing  their final battle at Phillipi, Brutus tells his long-time friend and comrade Cassius, "And whether we shall meet again I know not; therefore, our everlasting farewell take. Forever and forever, farewell, Cassius. If we do meet again, why, we shall smile. If not, why, then this parting was well made." To this, his sad and heartbroken friend Cassius replies, "Forever and forever, Brutus! If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed. If not, 'tis true this parting was well made." Words cannot express the feelings of one's heart at the loss of such a friend. Truly, it is the love of friends that lives on in our lives and gives us the desire to share it with those around us, for this is the nature of love, just as God has loved us.