Moments of clarity. Singleness of thought. Focus. In a world broken up into 12 second sound bites, we have few moments of clarity. We are torn from one screaming crisis to another until something gives us pause, and we take that moment to think.
It is sometimes said that youth is wasted on the young. Youth certainly wasn’t wasted on John Moss. Some people burn through life like a comet. Others float and drift like a leaf in the wind. John was a poem.
I met him one morning in the fall of 1980 when I walked out of my rented basement bedroom in Oxford, Mississippi and found him sleeping on the pool table. I woke him and introduced my self. He had driven all the way from Jacksonville to Oxford the night before. We went to Shoney’s for breakfast and began a 36 year friendship.
John left us Thursday. He fought the good fight against a relentless cancer for 1 ½ years. He knew the score from day one, and still he lived every day the good Lord gave him. We visited him 6 weeks ago in Jacksonville. He was sick. He looked sick.
Sometimes you hear it said that we should strive to be the person our dog thinks we are. John was the guy his dog thought he was. He was kind, and gentle. He was generous and compassionate. He was fun, and smart. He was caring and thoughtful. He was all this to everyone he ever met. This was John Moss.
We are all better people for having had John in our lives. We are all forever changed for the better by his enthusiasm,his optimism and his laughter. John put a silver lining around every storm cloud he ever saw.
So fare thee well, John Butler Moss, ‘Hootie’. Rest in peace. We will all miss you forever, but we smile and laugh through our tears as we remember the celebration that was your life.
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