THE LETTER PART II

Dear Patrick-

So where were we? Oh yes, it’s June of 1995, but we are taking a look into the future. WAY into the future. Please understand these next words very clearly: When you reach age 50 and look back on 1995 and college graduation, you will wonder how the hell it went so fast. Let that sink in. When you are about 26, a man that you meet briefly will tell you something that will stay with you forever. He says: “Kid….enjoy it all, because you’re going to blink and be 60.” You will listen and will try your best to live by them. Indeed TIME is the infinite jest. You have already decided, here in 1995, that no matter what you do in life (or what life does TO you) that you will do your best to leave a mark. Next year, in 1996, you will meet and become friends with 2 members of the rock group Boston. They are Barry and Brad. They are going to share a side project CD they make called Delp & Goudreau and one of the songs will become a soundtrack for your life. It’s called “What You Leave Behind.” Brad will give you a copy of the CD, and you will feel that the lyrics of this song speak directly to you: “Some call on intuition, some call on the divine….but in the end it doesn’t matter….it’s what you leave behind.” With Brad, you will share many conversations about music, The Beatles (who he loves too…and he even met Ringo and George Martin!) and, growing up listening to Boston….Patrick…you will actually get to ask Brad about his song More Than A Feeling. He will explain that he simply writes what he knows and takes the time to observe life and connections between people. You will see him sing live with Boston and play with Barry in local settings as well. For an international rockstar, he is a perfectly down to Earth, kind, gentle, and loving soul. In February of 2007, you will see Brad’s side project….a Beatles tribute band, play a show and you will speak with him after the concert. In the ten years that you have known him, he always calls you Pat. This time, he ends with a handshake and says “Goodbye Mr. Moeschen.” For a moment, you find it strange, but you did have his son in class, which is how you meet Brad in the first place, so you dismiss it. A little over two weeks later, this man, with a vocal gift directly from God, loses his secret years long battle with mental illness, and takes his own life. You will again be left stunned. Forever after, you wish you could have spoken with him about this decision. You are angry, and wish that he was still here. You will never again hear a Boston song on the radio without wondering if he is looking down wondering what he left behind….just like his lyrics. You will be jolted into understanding that each and every interaction you have with people is shaping your life. You will wonder why things happen. You often find no answers no matter where, or how hard you look.

And so it will go, three years later, in June of 2010, your life will pivot on a series of text messages and phone calls. I’m sure you’re confused Pat, so let me explain briefly: In the future, we will all carry small, flat, rectangular phones around with us. You will no longer call a place…instead you will call a person. It will kind of resemble an electronic leash, complete with a function that allows you to type a message and send it over space with no wires to another phone. It’s called a text, and it will be used by everyone for everyday communication. It will be like talking with someone without talking TO them. It’s going to take over. It is on this small phone that you will invite Vanessa to Denver from Massachusetts to hear you speak at the annual Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy conference. You will weigh the message before you ask, but only briefly. You wonder if she’s crazy when she accepts and books a flight for the following morning. You are with your family at the conference and your sister thinks it’s great that this “new friend” is coming. Your mother says….”Well, I hope she’s getting her own room.” Yes Pat, your mother will always be your mother. God Bless her and her Italian mouth. Maybe that’s where you get yours from. Either way you really don’t believe that your life will change based on one weekend and a few of these text message things. You are slow to learn that life is full of surprises.

Vanessa comes to Denver and is immediately welcomed into the PPMD family. You will always tell everyone that this charity is like nothing you have ever been involved with before. It’s the family that no one wants to belong to. Tethered to it because all involved know and love individuals living with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy, Vanessa will see you at your best: on stage, talking about life and how beautiful and amazing it is. You will spend the weekend laughing, talking late into the night and allowing her into your world of disability. She will not be scared off. On the contrary, she will embrace it as an adventure to be shared. A friend and mom of 2 sons with Duchenne will praise her for “enlisting in this when the rest of us have been drafted.” Your relationship and love will grow. On August 3, 2013 you will be married. Family, and friends will come and party under a tent in a big field. You will again be reminded that life can and does take amazing twists and turns. You watch the party, hear the live band, and wish your father was alive to see this. In the middle of the party, a yellow monarch butterfly flutters around the crowd and lands on a tent pole in the sun. You notice that it flexes its wings and then flies off. The yellow monarch returns again later, flying among the crowd of 150 guests. You are certain that your father has joined you on your wedding day. Life is wonderful. It’s what you leave behind. Just wait Patrick, in 2014 it gets even better when you and Vanessa welcome your firstborn son. Let’s not have your future head explode. Enough for this crystal ball letter. Looks like we will meet again next week for part 3. Until then, go and listen to some Boston, and for the love of God, when this thing called the internet gets cranked up, buy stock in a company called America Online. You will thank me someday.

Stay safe. Stay awesome, and Stay tuned.

P.S. You never did buy that stock did you? You moron. Also….yes…the RedSox will finally win the World Series. And just wait until you see what the Patriots are going to do…..It’s gonna be a helluva ride.

This is the future you. Circa 2006 with Brad Delp, lead singer, Boston. You will ask him how on Earth he can sing notes so high in pitch. He will laugh and say….”PRACTICE.” See? There is no magic dust. In college you practiced up to 4 hours a day. Take that drive and expand it to other aspects of life.