Max’s Farewell

Our revels now are ended.

These our actors, as I foretold you,

Were all spirits, and are vanished into air,

Into thin air…

Hannah used to say that all the time. She loved Shakespeare.

I have to go now, my parents are coming in.

But hey, you’ve been good for me. You listened, you were patient, you didn’t interrupt me. That’s something. You made me feel less alone.

So much has happened, both good and bad. I can’t say I’ve had the greatest life anyone ever had, but it certainly has been busy. One thing after another. But when I look back on the whole thing, I see one problem as the key to it all: being alone, and not being alone.

Part of me has always felt like that tree in the forest that falls alone, with no one to see it or help it or care. Another part of me thinks I really haven’t been as alone as I thought. There were people who tried to reach out to me and couldn’t, and there were people who touched me just by being who they were. Like Bart, like Melanie, like my Dad. Like Hannah. Can any human being say he’s had it better than that?

And maybe you’ll remember. You’ve been with me a long time. If I have to go this way, it’s nice to think that someone will remember me.

Some day you may be passing a park with a pond in it, or a river full of twigs and branches hurrying away like there’s no tomorrow,  and you’ll think, “Gee, that reminds me of Max.” I would like that.

Try not to forget.