July 20, 2014
Day 81
It was always the plan.
Laramie, Wyoming was close enough by car to the Boulder, Colorado area, so I wanted to make a kind of pilgrimage there, to honor Matthew Shepard's spirit by sending our warm wishes out into the wind.
There was no need to go to the exact place those guys took Matthew and left him for dead. There was no need to go down the street that would take us to the other street and the land where he was found. A brief search on Google and then Google Earth showed me the spot, and just seeing it on my computer screen was enough. So today would just be about driving through town, understanding the area a bit, and simply seeing the place he was found...from a distance.
The way we die doesn't matter. None of us would want our loved ones to focus on our method of death or the place we happened to give up our spirit. Yet this place means something to so many of us. It's a place we think of when we think of Matthew. And Matthew is a boy we think of when we think of the uphill climb we're all still on.
So how is the place? How is Laramie? The answer might surprise you.
Laramie is, for lack of a better word, average. It's just a quiet little town surrounded by many, many, many miles of quieter fields and hills. And the people we met in Laramie were likewise...average. That is to say, they are just like you and me. They were friendly and kind, warm and gracious. They didn't kill Matthew Shepard. They didn't even want him hurt. They just live there, and they just grimace like the rest of us when the issue is raised. (We didn't bring it up, but you can tell these people would not be happy to have their quiet little Wyoming town remembered for anything other than the beauty of the area, the stillness of the land, and the simple, happy life they all live.)
As we left Laramie, Andy put it best. We were thinking about the event that night that ultimately took Matthew Shepard's life, and thinking about what we'd just experienced in the town of Laramie (a brief drive through town, and a short lunch). As we pulled onto the highway, Andy said, "These aren't bad people at all here; they're just like us. They've got all the same stores we do too." His point was simple and perfect. We're all the same anywhere you go on this earth. There are people who do bad things, and there are people who do good things.
So I guess my point is, what have you heard about the town of Laramie before or since Matthew Shepard's murder there? I'm thinking, like me, you'd answer nothing at all. Laramie is just a little town where on one night many years ago, a horrible thing happened at the hands of two very disturbed young men. But on every day since then (and it's already almost 16 years now), life has gone on the same, and nothing horrible has made the news.
Laramie doesn't deserve to be branded a place of hate. It's simply a place where hate once happened. And because our planet is so vast and filled with so many kinds of people, it's helpful to remember that just as hate will show up here and there, goodness will prevail much more often.
Matthew was taken from us through a bad act 16 years ago, but Matthew's spirit reminds us of so much more good found every day since...in his name, because of his life, and through his never-ending legacy.
The smoke of a burnt-out candle is not the candle, and the bright light of Matt's life is clearly shining on...forever.
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