To the Person With A Ready, Available Laugh

How many times I have tried to summon you back into flesh, to hear your charming voice remarking on the absurd occurrences of Californian life, to see the tan of your skin at peace with the sunshine, to feel the warmth of your soul shining through your laughter which so readily illuminated the joy in life.

How often have I tried to perceive the world with the levity you gracefully bathe the mundane in, until nearly everything is once again pure and golden and weightless.

Even LA traffic was a breeze with you in the passenger seat.

I imagine you, in this moment, with the whole Earth’s core and mantle between us, sitting cross-legged in a Vipassana retreat center with eyes closed and an open heart beating more brave and true with each breath. It’s not that your life is without heaviness- for there is perhaps a surplus of weight on this suspended planet - it’s that your focus directs your attention so precisely at what is pleasurable, what is delightful, what nourishes you that you liberate yourself from the weight of regret, of what is wrong, of what weighs so heavily on the soul.

This tendency or disposition or practice is perhaps the most admirable characteristic I have ever known and it proves you a far wiser creature than the multitude of heavy-hearted fools who trudge through life arrogantly certain that what concerns them somehow validates their misery and discontent they create for themselves.

If I hope anything for you, it’s that no one is ever able to snuff out the candle you hold in witness to what makes life worth living. There is far too much darkness in this world.

And now I think of you as I sit in this pub in downtown Santa Cruz, watching any kind of person pass by-

and I laugh, I laugh, I laugh.

Love most sincerely,

Roman

P.S. I have so many questions for you regarding this book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being , I imagine we’ll have to sit down for a few beers and discuss it well into the evening, preferably near a fireplace.