Our Friend Mike
My friend Mike passed away a few weeks ago. I first met him over 15 years ago at UWM’s student union. I was at a table letting folks know about a campus ministry I worked for. He was taking science classes at the age of 70 while also entertaining on the union’s piano in between classes. We disagreed about just about everything.
I was pregnant with Gabe at the time and he insisted life continues only through entropy and not love. I insisted entropy is part of the shape of love.😊(insert Miller light guy commercial shouting “it is both!”)
He asked about the crusades and the greedy televangelists and the Holocaust almost every time we spoke about whether Christianity was a healing and helpful religion. He said he liked that I didn’t always claim to know answers. I told him I learned from his questions and spirit. He would laugh when I told him to stop harassing all the religious booths just cause he loved to argue and he would giggle when I asked over and over why he thought science and religion needed to be separated.
After I left my job at the campus ministry, I eventually ran into him again on a run and several times at the Outpost. (We did agree on good farming😀). He would stop over and we would chat on our porch often. He thought our kids were so “interesting” and would bring a 1970s tape recorder to tape Macy as she developed making sounds as a baby. He would go to Eric’s eye care place to talk running and music and have Eric make his glasses over and over again. 😊
We went to the Brewery where he played polka music on the piano. He could hear a song and play it on the piano. With his knuckles. 🤔😊. He would say that music was the only thing that made him believe in some sort of soul. He told me about the music he loved that he believed help heal the World War 2 vets after they came home. He would volunteer to play at nursing homes.
I eventually invited him to our small group that we hosted for our church at our house. He would bring his meditation rug and throw out random and often unrelated questions.😊. He came pretty faithfully towards the end before COVID. And when I told him it was too much for us to keep hosting every week, he was my biggest advocate to keep the group going.
He gave us a piano he found at a church. I told him I used to play and wanted one in our house. He told me to play songs that made me happy. I told him Canon in D always set me at ease.
I didn’t see him much after covid. He stopped volunteering to play piano. We would talk on the phone from time to time. He would tell me a joke and I would tell him God loved him. Here’s to friends who think differently and open up new layers of love and life. And may Mike rest fully in the infinite love and mystery of God.
