A Tribute to Dave Price - Rest In Peace, My Friend
He was a man among men, a Christian in the truest sense of it, living the example.
It has been a privilege to know him and it is a deprivation to know he's not walking the Earth doing his kindness, spreading his joy and good humor and caring about people. But the path he walked still glows.
I just wanted to pay tribute to him and this is my paltry way of doing it.
There are some
Whose beings mean so much,
Who - even passing -
Cast longer shadows;
Who, having passed,
Leave larger, gaping,
Vacant spaces -
Imprint indelible traces
Upon the passing lives
They’ve touched.
______© Nellieanna H. Hay
The following excerpts from a fairly recent email from Dave tell about him in his own words more than any I could pen:
My family - my wife and children - they really are the best thing that ever happened to me. They say a man doesn't really start to grow up until he has children; maybe that's true, it certainly is true in my case. After my son was born I went back and watched an old movie, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier. I don't know if you remember it, but it's a wonderful movie that I enjoy watching from time to time. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where Sidney Poitier's character is arguing with his father, and his father begins to complain about all the sacrifices he made to make Poitier successful. Poitier stops him, and says to his father "I didn't ask to be born. You brought me into this world, and you owe me everything." That's not exactly the right words, but it's the idea of what he was saying that I took to heart. I do owe them everything - everything I can give, everything I can do, every ounce of energy, and prayer, and love, and devotion. I learned to want to give it all, and giving it all has changed my entire life. That's one of the most valuable lessons of Christ's life, to me - when you learn to give it all (and none of us can give our all so completely as He did) - you lose nothing and you gain everything. If that's not the greatest paradox of Christ's message I don't know what is. And when you get to give your all to and for those you love the most - there is nothing greater in this life. Compared to that, a little pain is nothing. Money - so what, it comes and it goes. I've made a lot and I've made a little, and none of it has truly affected the life I live with my wife and kids. Trouble comes and trouble goes, but love lasts forever.
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Life is good, if you let it be. Life goes on, each day bringing its joys and its sorrows. I've come to believe that it's the way we respond to pain that determines everything about our life. There's always a place for regret, for anger, for sorrow, for blaming God and others for the pain we endure. But how we deal with that pain determines everything: it reveals how strong and how weak we are; it determines how successful we are despite it, or how broken we are because of it; it determines who we blame, or if we blame, and that is all the difference; it determines how happy or how miserable we feel at any given time; it is the one great determination that defines the best and the worst of our life. Most importantly, it determines the length and the depth and the height and the width of the truth of our faith. C.S. Lewis put it so well in the title of his book - The Problem of Pain. The real problem with pain is, it answers everything.
I won't spoil that by adding anything, except to again express to Veronica and his family what a blessing he was to all of us who had the privilege of knowing him. My brief - but precious - few hours over coffee talking to him that one Saturday he was coming through Dallas and took me up on calling me, are among my precious memories. He radiated such goodness and ease. Bless you, my friend.
