John Blais: 1971-2007
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams or for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow. If you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and close from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fit it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with the wildness and let the "Meatheadedness" fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you're telling is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not there everyday, and if you can source your life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still shout stand on the edges of a lake, river or mountain and shout to the silver of the full moon. Yes! I'm a Meathead...
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for someone you love.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and truly like the company you keep in the empty moments of your life and still remember me... "
- Blazeman, ALS Warrior Poet
Ironman biography on Youtube: Jon Blais - The Blazeman
Ironman.com announcement: Ironman Loses Its Warrior Poet
Homepage: ALS Warrior Poet
Live more than your neighbors. Unleash yourself upon the world and go places. Go now. Giggle, no, Laugh. No...stay out past dark
And bark at the moon like the wild dog that you are.
Understand that this is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. Your life.
Face your fears and live your dreams. Take it all in.
Yes, every chance you get. Come close.
And by all means, whatever you do, get it on film.
posted by Wedgie @ 9:06 AM
3 Comments:
Today we have all lost a brother.
Our denial of the immediacy of our death made us less wise, less connected, less alive, than John. His words are the gift that force us to occupy a place of empathy seeing through his eyes the reality of life as a short, scarce, fragile moment.
His was not a battlecry to win but to show up. Not to simply show up but to try, and not to just try but to win.
We will miss you dearly until we are rejoined again as brothers.
I have enjoyed that poem for years and from this point forward it will be hard to read it and not think of the Blazeman. He made it his own and did the same for his life.
Godspeed Jon Blais.
i will remember!!
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