No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late
Now I can’t think, think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though it never existed.
Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye
~ Metallica – Fade to Black
The world is colder now. The are those people in the world that change you. Those that make the world a better place by being in it. Those that make you a better person having known them. It was a couple years ago that the world lost one like that, today there was another. From the point they came into my life all of them have had a big impact on how my life was shaped.Terry Williams was one of the most welcoming people I knew. Yes he had his opinions but everybody that knew him came out better for it in someway I think and after seeing his facebook wall this morning, that it was just a part of who he was. “Yes Jay, I sure it’s a monitor card.” was a less in humility, which while it may be a private joke, know that Terry wore his mistakes as much as he wore his successes because every thing he did was a part of who he was and even those mistakes made him stronger.
I think that was one of the most important things I could ever learn in life and I will never forget the man I learned it from. So many people come and go in our lives but there are those whose impacts will echo with you into eternity. The person I was before I learned these things has long been stamped out and those that knew me wouldn’t recognize me. Hell, half my family probably wouldn’t recognize the integrity and dignity of the man that once was the nerdy clumsy boy they may remember.
One part of a group, that got together almost daily for two years for me to throw the dice and enter another world. He gave me the character that to this point has defined my writing, my playing, my dungeon mastering. He also helped introduce me into what I would come to learn when I started down the information technology highway. There was a turning point in my life that could have went infinite number of directions. Without Terry Williams, for one, I shudder to think of where or who I would be.
Digital DNA 