To An Athlete Dying Young

This is Mark Bavis. He was a good friend of mine from college. He was on Flight 135 out of Boston on September 11th, 2001. He was a scout for the L.A Kings at the time that he died. I was a tutor for the B.U Hockey Men's Varsity hockey team during my undergraduate years and Mark, and his identical twin brother Mike, were on the team. They got me the job. He majored in English and I would like to think that I had something to do with that.

I miss all my college friends. I miss Mike Bavis, Dan Donato, Kevin O'Sullivan, J.P McKersie, Zoe Mulholland, Jen Crowley - all of them. But I will see them again, I know I will. When we all have gone grey, gained weight and seen our kids off, I will be running into them from time to time. The last time we were all together was for Mark at the memorial service. He brought us together. I will miss Mark most of all because I won't be running into him again. Not in this life.

A.E Housman's poem, To An Athlete Dying Young was written for a guy like Mark. I link to it here because on a day like today, we need poetry. Also, because if Mark had to read it, he would have rolled his eyes, exaspirated, crossed Bay State Road and knocked on my door to ask me what it meant. If only he could now.