Today I went for a 4 mile run. My thoughts were on World AIDS Day, and the many lives the horrible disease has affected. As readers know I endured a period where I was diagnosed as HIV+. For two years I had time to think about life, what it meant to me, and how I should live. The discovery that I wasn't HIV+, was a blessing, and the ordeal I went through made me the person I am today.
When my friend Dave Wagle died of AIDS related causes, there was a void in my life. My childhood friend, who always challenged me in singing, must have gone through the same kind of realizations as he dealt with his illness. When you are dying, or believe you are dying, you not only get your priorities, straight, but you find you who the true loves are in your life.
For those not old enough to remember, having AIDS in the 1980s and 90s was a death sentence, and there was a huge stigma, more so than there is today. I made a point of spending time with Dave. I noticed few people would visit him. He told me many of his friends were positive, and they didn't want to see what would happen to them. I could never wrap my head around that at the time. This was my friend, and it didn't matter to me what he had, he was sick, and he needed a friend.
I miss Dave. I miss his pretentiousness, his humor, his smile but most of all his friendship. I have dedicated every writing I have done on this day to him. I know he is watching me from Heaven, and smiling down.
My run was a quiet time for me to think about where we have been with AIDS, and how different the disease is now. Still AIDS kills people, and we need to work just as hard today as we did then to defeat it.
Charlie
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