#316 / On Not Forgetting (Something Important)

Pictured here is Shane Koyczan. Click the title link to see him present this poem. It will be worth your time; I can promise you that. 

Just in case ...

We might have forgotten ... 

We're alive!

Remember How We Forgot?
Remember how we forgot?
Remember how no one ever really died in the wars we fought?
Because each gunshot came from our finger tips
And we never really kept them loaded just in case
Because each enemy was a friend and none of it was about oil, religion, or land
It was all just pretend
Remember how we used to bend reality
Like we were circus strong men
Like our imaginations were in shape then
Like we were all ninjas trained in the deadly art of "did not".
Like "I totally got you"
"Did not"
Remember how we forgot?
Remember how our parents told us never to look directly into the sun
And how we were their suns [pun on "sons"]
And so we never looked directly into the mirror, in fear that we would go blind
Remember how we used to find any old reason just to call someone we were crushing on
Like we would just pawn off our sense of embarrassment
Buy a chunk of courage that would last just long enough to have us asking them about math and stuff
And how stuff was just stuff
Like I heard you were getting braces, and how braces somehow were and still are kinda hot
Remember how we forgot?
Remember how we all caught mono and out folks would go, "oh the kissing disease"
And our first steps into gangstahood had us saying “mother please.”
Even though we’ve never really kissed anyone
Even though we never did half the things we said we’d done
We just spun yarn like Rumpelstiltskin spun gold.
We told ghost stories never realizing we would one day ourselves become ghosts
Haunting the hallways of schools
Poltergeist, breaking all the rules of silence in the library
But we had no chains to rattle
No voice to battle the fact that we had no vocal chords
We had only finger nails on chalk boards
We had to scream, shout, and yell trying to tell ourselves what experience can teach is what no teacher taught
Remember how we forgot?
Once upon a time, we were young.
Our dreams hung like apples
Waiting to be picked and peeled
And hope was something that needed to be reeled-in
So we can fill the always empty big fish bin with the one that got away
And proudly say that "this time, impossible is not an option"
Because success is so akin to effort and opportunity that it could be related
So we took chances
We figureskated on thin ice
Belief that each slice of live was served with something sweet on the side
And failure was never nearly as important as the fact that we tried
That in the war against frailty and limitation
We supplied the determination it takes to make ideas and goals the parents of possibility
And we believe ourselves to be members of this family
Not just one branch on one tree
But a forest whose roots make up a dynasty
So when I call you sis or bro
It’s not lightly
And when I ask you to remember
It’s because the future isn't what it used to be.
So remember now
Pay tribute to every sacrifice laid upon the altar of somehow
For all the times
Somehow we overcame
Somehow we pushed on
Somehow we’ve gone the distance
And in going there we’ve possessed the freedom to map the uncharted lands of any and everywhere
We are unbound
Six feet above the underground where we will all one day rest
So until then
Test the limits
Test the boundaries and borders
Of the headquarters of potential lay just beyond the world's edge
Let the belief that hope belongs to us all
Be the pledge you take to make the unachievable as inconceivable as the false fact that we were never here
We were here
And our memories are as dear to us as every slow motion moment or held breath
So remember every instance before death
Every first kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe so
Let us go the distance once more
Let us remember all the moments that were and were not
Like the point is something we can get and what we can get is what we got
Because all we have is the time between the moments we connect each dot so
Live and remember
Burn like an ember capable of starting fires
Like each moment inspires the next
Like memories are the context we put ourselves in
So that life becomes the next of kin we need to notify in case of a big bang or extinction level event
Let now be our advent
Let us live like we meant it
Let us burn like we mean it
Because this world doesn't give a shit if we end in a train wreck or a car crash
If our story ends with a dot or dash
If we were dust or ash
Because all we were is all we’ll be
And all we are is the in-between of so far, so good
So forget every would, could, or should not
Forget remembering how we forgot
Live like a plot twist exist now and in memory
Because we burn bright
Our lights leave scars on the sun
Let no one say we'll be undone by time's passing
The memories we are amassing will stand as testament
That somehow we bend minds around the concept
that we see others within ourselves.
That self-knowledge can be found on bookshelves
So who we are has no bearing on how we appear
Look directly into every mirror
Realize our reflection is the first sentence to a story
And our story starts:
"We were here."

Image Credit: 
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Video+Interview+with+Shane+Koyczan+This/8005205/story.html