Andy 4 years later
It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since my best friend passed away at the young age of 38. Best friends are hard to find, but Andy was irreplaceable. I won't rehash what I've already written about Andy and his remarkable life. Read about it on my blog if you haven't already. His story will bless you in some way - I promise.
Today's memorial post will highlight the changes in those few years: culturally, personally and Pinball related
Culture
Andy would recognize people if he were still with us .. for the most part, they remain the same. Remember he loved everyone - from all walks of life. No matter the passage of time, Andy would still love you. Unfortunately, he would find that we are more socially divided than we were in 2018. He might not mention it, but it would be hard not to notice the changes. It feels like the world is moving to extremes, becoming more selfish and questioning all established standards of truth. The situation has now surpassed the simple politics of liberal vs conservative, or supply side vs demand side economics. Those were the good old days. Just 4 years ago life looked a lot simpler. Today we are debating pronouns, villifying our law enforcement and generally working overtime to make certain we don't hurt anyone's feelings. We have much bigger problems than pronouns and for some reason these narrow focus areas become the subsitute for the more pressing issues of mental health, senior care, inflation, national debt, mortage rates, censorship of all kinds, savings rates, government spending, violent crime, vandalism and on and on. We are supposed to get MORE civilized as time passes. I wonder if we are.
Personal
Since Andy left us, many have lost loved ones through the normal course of time and due to the impact of COVID. Time waits for no one. Just a few weeks after Andy passed, I lost my Dad as well - to the very same disease (MDS). He passed away on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. I remember standing in the driveway when my Mom called and told me I should rush home because my Dad was not expected to make it. I hugged my family in the driveway in the cold morning air on that Thanksgiving Day and said "I'm sorry" and "I've got to go" to begin the 13 hour drive back to upstate NY. I got about half way there when I received the call from my Mom telling me he was gone. You know the rest of the story if you've lost anyone. Grief is a necessary but at times debilitating emotion. I attended my Dad's celebration of life event later in the spring and more than a hundred showed up to tell stories and celebrate my Dad's life. My Dad's brother Bob (my favorite Uncle) passed a few years after him, as did one of my cousins at a very young age from ALS. Sitting here at 59 years old I can say for sure that time DOES fly by. Thinking about my Dad as I write this post, I started to wonder what the most important thing was that he taught me? Its sounds too simple, but the answer is without a doubt ... he taught me to say "I love you". He did it by saying that to me almost every day of my life. Whatever you do, don't take loved ones for granted. Say thanks to friends and family for little things. Say I love you often - nobody gets sick of hearing it and everyone needs it. Life is short. The people you love are only going to know that if you tell them.
Pinball
Pinball is essentially the same game but a lot around it has changed. Since 2018 prices have gone up by 25% or more for NIB machines. The good news is that for the most part, the quality of gameplay has also risen as we have been blessed to see the rise of the likes of Keith Elwin and the high performance machine that is Stern Pinball. Stern is delivering some of the best coded, best graphics, most cohesive, most "fun factor" machines since the game was invented. Andy would simply LOVE Elwin's Godzilla. He would learn about a new manufacturer in Australia called Haggis Pinball and probably be thrilled that they are remaking some of the old classics. The stranger-than-fiction story of Deeproot was already underway while Andy was with us, only to conclude in the worst possible way. He would be intensely sad, as were all of us, at the loss by suicide of the great Lyman Sheats (an epidemic now in our country). Andy loved connecting with people and he would embrace Stern's new "Connected" system that supports a more social engagement for Pinball, but at the same time he would be surprised that the "king" (Steve Ritchie) had moved over to Jersey Jack. Yes, a lot has changed in 4 years, but overall I think Andy would be thrilled with the game quality, variety and current popularity of Pinball. I only wish he was here to see it.
4 years ago Andy's family and friends helped me write his story. I think Andy would be pleased at how he has been remembered. Andy cared about and loved people more than anything. Pinball was just a means to an end of connecting with people. Love is really what mattered to Andy. He understood that loving each other fixes a lot of things, it keeps bad stuff at bay, it fosters forgiveness and it repairs broken people. For the short time we are on this earth we should be like Andy and take every chance we get to share it.
https://thepinballloft.com/andy-part-2/
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Lenoir City, TN
