Elephant

I haven't been writing this week. There's an elephant in the room I couldn't bring myself to write about, and writing about something else felt cheap.

I have a friend. I met him in elementary school where he got me into comic books and we played X-Men on the jungle gym. He loved the superheroes he read about, and I couldn't help but try to be like him and learn all I could about these super-powered characters. He was the toughest kid I knew, but in a build-a-tree-fort way, not a bully or jock way.

He grew up and put his super powers to good use. He became a Corpsman. Basically, he was a Marine Medic - a navy-trained medic attached to a Marine unit.

Last week he was injured in the line of duty. He was hurt bad. I am having trouble thinking about anything besides him, his family and his recovery.

He has accomplished something remarkable. He has become one of the heroes we read about and pretended to be so long ago. There's no more pretending, and no more games - he gave me heroes as a kid and now he is my hero. Thank you.