I want you all to know how much I love this community. And I want you all to know how much I love all of you. Yes, even those I’ve butted heads with and argued with over the years. Because you are family. It’s what families do, right? We fight, we love, we support, we teach and we grow and encourage one another to do the same.
In the 15 years I have been among you, I have grown so very much. And much of it because you are here. All of you. I have gotten love and support, the occasional boxing about the ears and even a beautiful quilt after my HIV diagnosis when I didn’t even have family around me to comfort me. You were my family. You still are.
Your passion for justice and ideals to help your fellow man has humbled me and left me in awe. Your devotion to your causes and the willingness to defend them in the face of some ferocious criticisms here is amazing to me and something to be admired and celebrated. You make me want to be better.
So why am I writing all of this to you? Many of whom I may never meet or know in person?
Yesterday I learned that a customer and friend of ours died from this pandemic, along with three other of his family members, including his mother. 4 more of them are in critical condition in his family, with no sense of what their individual outcomes may be. I spent much of today crying for their loss, and the incalculable loss to their families and friends. No small amount of those tears weren’t also some of the pent up stress and fear I am trying to work through personally while trying to be strong for those succumbing to their own terror in all of this. Fear for my family. My friends. Myself. And you.
This pandemic spins ever closer to my personal world and circle. You are part of that world and circle. Please be safe. And please don’t be afraid to reach out to me if you need to talk. If you think you are alone in all of this isolation we now endure, I am here to assure you you are not. I’m here. We all are.
I love you.