Summer of Sharks

Three years ago today one of my best friends passed away unexpectedly. I was living in Southern California but in New York at the time, at a company picnic on the North Fork, when I heard the news.

It's that funny wrinkle of time when you blink and suddenly three years pass, you're now living back in New York 2.0, and over the course of time Dave's friends and family have figured out a way to go on with things, without him. In a way....

The posts on his facebook memorial, Blessed to Have Known Dave Freeman, are still fairly regular, often bringing a bittersweet smile, or chuckle, as friends and family mention a story or place or happening or idea that brings Dave immediately to the foreground. Sometimes the posts are about looking back, but it's often looking forward, going back to our touchstone, the person we knew with the greatest sense of adventure and perspective in him, wondering what Dave would think or say about something. What would Dave's take on it would be.
He was, for most of us, the high beam on a dark road.

Nearly 10 years ago, in the hot August of 2001, when we were both living in New York and working at the same ad agency, Dave had pronounced the summer "The Summer of Sharks" when things like PR party planner Lizzie Grubman running over someone in her SUV in the Hamptons and a couple shark attacks on kids in Florida was what was making major headlines. No one could quite see ahead that "Summer of Sharks" wouldn't last and of course we entered an era of 'real news'...

...Confusing news, upside news, news that is often overwhelming to process between wars, financial drama, earthquakes, people starving, nations running out of water, people out of work, flash mobs, unrest and uprisings...

In addition to what it's like to just miss spending time with a good friend, I think we all miss how Dave would interpret things, what he would say that would help make sense of all this to us. One of the things Dave would often say, clapping his hands impatiently was: "We're going to the future, people, are you coming??" Live in the now. Don't be afraid. Make something happen.Have an Adventure. Get fast. Keep moving. Change.

His specialty was the unapologetic kick in the pants, delivered with biting truth and humor.
While Dave now has a change of address, and in our non "Summer of Shark" times, "We're going to the future, people, are you coming??" still remains a reminder of where and where not to place our focus.