Be Inspired

I was reading on CNN News, that rapper Heavy D passed away. I’m not a Heavy D fan, though I don’t remember his face and some of his work. What struck me about the article however were the mentions of his final Twitter posts. The night before he passed he had made comments praising the former champ boxer Joe Frazier who also passed away this week.

Heavy D’s last tweet was, “BE INSPIRED.”

I’ve thought about this idea a time or two. How often times, when someone passes away others (my self included) immediately go to their Facebook or Twitter. Their blog, check for old emails or text messages. It’s almost a way of holding on. A way to prove that they were once so alive and now trying so hard to understand that they are simply gone, however unsimple that really is.

I did this a lot when my friend Bryan passed away. I read over all his quotes on Facebook, they matched up with the guy he truly was and it was comforting to read those. Reading through our old emails, was almost like a part of him was always here.

Photos have this same effect. I love to take photos of every even in my life. I get some grief for it from time to time, but they are so important in the long run, they capture memories that otherwise might fade. They allows us to relive what other wise might pass away.

I think to myself sometimes, man, if I died right now—this would be what people would see. This would be my photo forever, this would be the last status or update anyone would see from–what would they think. Maybe it’s a strange or unimportant thing in life, but its very much part of what we do now. This isn’t to say we will be remembered by the fact that our last status update might be something somewhat selfish or complainy or even something bizarre and silly.

And perhaps this is all so inconsequential we shouldn’t care about it.

But I’d want to leave behind last words of, “BE INSPIRED.” I want my last words, my last actions to be something worth leaning on.

But more than anything, I want to leave behind a whole life that is worth remembering, worth raising a drink to. Worth shedding tears for. Worth scouring your inbox for, your texts for,  your brain for. Not because I feel self-important, but because I want to make a positive difference in your life, one laugh at a time. Have I also done this for every single person? No, I haven’t, I’ve hurt plenty. But in the past few years I’ve consistenly become the Isha, that could die feeling like the world, or at the very least, the people I love have been changed for the better.

People, “be inspired.”