The Show Must Go On

“Inside my heart is breaking,
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on…”

“The Show Must Go On”

Anyone who has ever been on stage can relate to that sentiment. I know that I can. Sometimes the dance, the words and the music are all that you have at that moment to sustain you.

It could be a metaphor for how we live our lives.

I have been a big Queen fan all of my life. The words and music written by Freddie Mercury are some of the most heart warming and heart wrenching I have ever heard. He was the only person I felt like “I Knew” who had contracted HIV/AIDS.

I have recently come to know and love someone who was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago. His lover died 2 years after he was diagnosed. He lives his life with Grace, Dignity, Courage, Wit, Love and Compassion. I admire and respect him so much becasue if faced with the same consequences I don’t know if I could do the same. He is has become one of my dearest friends. He is one of the bravest people I know.
I volunteered at The Island Coast AIDS Network last year. I met people who were HIV positive. I saw their children. My heart broke when their food pantry ran out of food 2 days before Thanksgiving.
I was there helping to sort out Christmas gifts that had been bought by parishoners from “The Gay Church”(as we affectionately called it). Every item on the list was bought and wrapped. There must have been 20 bicycles of all sizes and colors. That’s when I felt the impact…those bikes….
I worked there and helped train a man named Brian, who had HIV for over 10 years, having lost his life partner to the disease. I loved his dry sense of humor, his honesty; he thought I was “just fabulous”! and we became close in a short period of time.

Around Christmas time we read Brian’s obituary in the paper.

HIV/AIDS is not a gay disease. It is a human disease.
Believe it or not there are still those who turn their back and shun those afflicted, quote The Old Testament, saying it is God’s will…

I played the following video for my daughter on Easter Sunday and explained it’s significance. This song was written by Freddie Mercury after his AIDS diagnosis. This video, is a loving compilation of his work. This literary piece is for Brian, Freddie, my “Buddy” and everyone out there, who walks out their front door, smile in place, carrying on “The Show”.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

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