the shakespeare inside himself....

i've sent him a few cards tellin' him i loved him.
called and left a few messages tellin' him i was
thinking of him....just passing things so he knew
he was being thought of.

i came home just a bit ago to a message from him.
so i called him back.

my elderly gentlemen friend.
bob's uncle.
i think he's 80 now.

he answered the phone and i greeted him with an
enthusiastic hey and he didn't even say hello.
he says 'can i tell you something personal?'

'only if it's nice.' i answer back without hesitation.

this is the gruff ol' guy. and you never know what
he's gonna say!

laughin' here......

and he launches into to telling me that no one in
his whole life has ever thought of him the way i
think of him.

and i told him i think they did, they just didn't
say so. told him i was just more verbal about it.

he talked about his unhappy upbringing and how he
never knew joy. and that joy for him was maybe havin'
a break, havin' a beer. maybe gettin' a day off of
work. that was it.

can you imagine????

and he said 'you brought something out in me that i
never shared with anyone. you brought out the
shakespeare inside myself.'

seriously.
that's what he said.

the shakespeare inside himself.
what an incredible way to describe it.

i told him that he needed to share it with all
kindsa people. the more he shared it, the more
it'd grow. he laughed real hard. talked about
how crazy people would think he is. then said
'what the heck.' like he maybe he would.

i smiled on my side of the phone.

we talked about joy. we talked about tears.
we talked about laughing and we talked about
hurting.we talked about the time he tried to kill
himself. i asked him about that and where he was
inside himself then. he told me a bit about it.

he was in his fifties when he did that.
wow.

he didn't feel he had any place he belonged.

that's the last time he cried, he said.
when he found out that he wasn't dead.
he was so disappointed he was still alive,
he cried.

wow.
wow.
we stopped there. i needed to just kinda hold that
a bit. that wasn't just something i wanted to
speed by.

and i talked to him about how amazing it was
he was still here and how glad i was that he had
made it thru.

this man is such a reminder to me........
we all need to know we matter.
we all just need that.
it's so darn easy to let people know you care.
it's so so so darn easy.

it's not cause i'm super wonderful that he shares
the shakespeare inside himself with me. it's cause
i let him know i want to see.

ohmygosh.

letting people know you want to see.......
that seems like one of the top three things we need
to offer.