Barlow, Barry D

I met Barry as he was celebrating his 29th birthday at the SF Brig on September 30, 1982. He was visiting SF from his home in Salt Lake City, Utah. I wasn't particularly focused on Barry that night but he got an A for persistence. (I kept putting him off saying I'll catch up with you later.) I decided at bartime to invite him home. Sometime in the wee hours I fell in love with the most sensitive, quite, intelligent man I've ever encountered. Around and about this time of year, close to and on the aniversary of his passing at 11:11 PM on February 21, 1992 I always get teary-eyed and introspect. I remain forever grateful for the most special love he brought into my life. I mourn his all too early passing. I frequently converse with him hoping my love will reach whatever plane upon which he currently travels, to let him know in the cosmic conscience, that he will always be a sacred, cherished part of me. I look forward to passing through the veil into the great unknown through which the object of my love has passed before. Do you suppose that we really sing the body electric and celebrate the me yet to come? As a very young man in SF I sang that song everytime I admired the lights of the Bay Bridge from my vantage point of it in the night hours South of Market. It is a bright and shining metaphor for us all. My wish is that we might all sing the body electric and celebrate our destiny yet to come. I owe a great debt of gratitude to all the special souls in San Francisco who shared themselves without reservation with me as we danced with the morning stars in that special time and in that sacred place.

Barry, with each passing year, I miss you even more than the previous year. I wish you were here to enjoy the company of my little dog, Tex. You were the finest person, the finest soul, the finest entity ever to enter into my human experience. I love you more than anything or anyone else as you must surely know. Your passing from me was a wound from which I will NEVER recover. I am ever grateful that we met, that we connected; And I pray that we shall one day connect again. Peace my most beloved Friend!

It is now just 3 days until the 30th anniversary of our meeting. The world is so very different now than it was just 30 short years ago. For me, it was always about quality. The quality of our thought. The depth of our emotion and of our intellect. Our ability to achieve our destiny regardless of where we come from or the limitations placed on us by family and social constraints. How I miss your telling smile, your special intellect, your GENTLE soul. No doubt, my life would have been diminished without your presence in it. After 30 years I still grieve your passing and lament my shortcomings just as I rejoice in our triumphs. I love you Barry. And most touching of all, I know that you loved me. The greatest of all gifts: to love and to have been loved.

It's OK. I've got a sneaking suspicion he has been reincarnated as Seth McFarland of Family Guy fame. Totally the same creativity, sarcasm, and sense of humor. I cherished my friendship with Barry, and think about him often.

Happy birthday little buddy! You're still in my thoughts.

Another birthday has come and gone but thoughts of you linger still. Happy birthday!