I’ve lost another brother.

That’s what I feel, three days after my friend Rick Brown died. He was 83 and went fast, with bone and lung cancer. So quickly that his final email to me, two weeks ago, said, “No good health news, early next week will work, your house.” Soon after, his wife Melissa told me he began home hospice care.

Rick, a Marine, saw combat in Vietnam and, eventually, became a substance abuse counselor. He was a practicing Catholic and Buddhist.

We knew each other well for about a decade, each taking turns hosting two-hour discussion sessions that wore me out.

Deep, deeper, deepest.

Politics, religion, soccer, and Truth, with a capital T, and by that he meant the continual search for how to Love better. Until we get that right, he taught, as individuals and as a people, we are lost.

Which is what I feel.

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