For no real reason, today the photo comes first.

I'm stressed out -- getting ready to travel to Portland for a few days to visit a friend. I'd put it off until the weather improves but his recent diagnosis is rather grim and I want to see him while his illness can be the elephant in the room; while he's still feeling strong and healthy.

When I met Andrew, I was interviewing him for an article I was writing about Earth First! (the 1992 EF! Round River Rendezvous in Colorado, where this friendship started, will be a focus of a future post). Instead of taking on the name of some glorious noble creature like so many of the folks in that scene, Slugthang went in the other direction. The quote he gave me when trying to sum up the value of Earth First! as a movement stuck in my brain: "Earth First! might be controversial, but that's because EF! is the finger in the eye of the general public that would rather look the other way."

Over the years, I've grown to think of him more as a brother than a friend.

This all got me thinking about other friends that have had impact on my life, especially those that are no longer with us.

One of them, an old comrade from my days in Buffalo, Gabrielle Bouliane, sums up the lesson to be learned: "Don't you dare waste your time."