John: Who once gave a stand-up monologue about how silly it was for gay men to wear condoms. Gone.
Michael: Who wrote books and told jokes about his misadventures in the clubs. Gone.
Joel: Possibly the best improv light and sound man who ever lived. Gone.
John: A designer who used vintage fabrics before vintage fabrics were cool. Gone.
Ken: Who helped save a bank. Gone.
I have friends who, in their thirties, got to experience what most people do not experience until their nineties.
All of their friends had died.
The friends they had dated, friends they had over for dinner, friends they saw movies with. Gone.
It was a lifestyle choice, in many cases. Safer sex may have helped, but some of the wildest friends are still alive. Just like some smokers live to be eighty or older. Just as some women who have lost mothers to breast cancer avoid the desease. Just as some incredibly reckless drivers some how remain wreckless.
Aids strikes. When it strikes, it can kill. Entire generations have been lost in Africa, and entire generations have been lost in the US.
With treatment, people live. There is no cure…yet. Like diabetes it can only be treated. But this is a desease that can be tamed, like polio, or TB.
Look around at the friends you have, at the family you have. And imagine what it would be like to be alone. Give thanks for who you have.
And when given a chance.
Donate.
Time. Money. Prayers.
Aids can be tamed.
on Dec 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
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on Dec 5th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I am sorry I did not read this the other day. Great post and it does make me wonder why protection is shunned. A short little romp “unencumbered” is really not worth your life. It is not just a death sentence but a lifelong commitment to medication and monitoring. A loss of freedom in all respects.
on Dec 5th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Thanks for the note Ettarose.
An amazing thing to me is that, like smoking, many younger kids are doing a lot of the same stupid things my friends did.