Two-dollar bill

  two  (t)

n.

1. The cardinal number equal to the sum of 1 + 1.

2. The second in a set or sequence.

3. Something having two parts, units, or members, especially a playing card, the face of a die, or a domino with two pips.

4. A two-dollar bill.

I want to tell you about two people. One of which you were able to meet. The other, I hope, you'll be able to meet through Me.

Your cousin Tommy was always my hero. He was six years older than I. He was the reason I now and forever will love the Duke Blue Devils, the Indianapolis Colts, VW Bugs, & Quiet Riot.

I can't explain that last one either.

He taught me how to play football. He taught me how to sprint. He taught me how much it hurts to lose a member of your Family.

He was no Saint. He wasn't even related to you by blood. He and his Sister were adopted by my Aunt & Uncle long before I was even born. That did not make him any less my Cousin though. It did not make him any less my Family. Any less Your Family. Any less Your Cousin.

He was murdered on a lone stretch of a South Carolina Interstate Road... with a shovel... for 300 dollars.

The man who took his life is now Free.

Tommy is the left half of a two-dollar bill.

I know a part of you remembers Mason.

You were lucky enough to see him one time. He was sitting in his bouncy seat at your Aunt & Uncle's home several years ago. He was hooked up to modern technology. Tubes & wires making sure his lungs did their job, making sure his kidneys didn't have to do their own.

He smiled at all three of us one time. Just once. He lived for four months on this earth.

Nature took his life and it continues to be Free.

Mason is the right half of a two-dollar bill.

The ironic thing about two-dollar bills is this... they just aren't worth very much. Not many people care about them. Their value, in the public eye, is null.

I don't know what happens when the human body dies. I don't know what the mind goes through. I'll know one day, as will you, but not this day. I'd like to think that we evolve but I just don't know that for certain. There is nothing left but molecules and matter. Nothing but a clod of dirt. Nothing that ties us to our vessels, save the countenance that those who look upon us relish and recall.

I do know that whatever made us US, leaves. Call it a soul, a spirit, a being, mere consciousness, what have you. Whatever it is... Goes.

I don't know where. I like to think it goes Everywhere.

Two-dollar bills don't have that luxury. They're no longer in circulation.

What that means, at least to me, is that when you come across them... however infrequently... you should hold on to them.

I do.

I hope you will learn to do the same.