and so a few dollars are stuffed into an envelope, and handed to me, the student secretary, with instructions to purchase a "sympathy card" for the family. So i get up and walk across campus to the bookstore.

and then i begin to look through the cards. there are so many, all say the same thing, different pictures, different catch phrases. but can any of them really make a difference? i take so long to choose, hoping that whichever one i pick will be the one that can make the family smile, but also the one the faculty will approve of-they're all so picky about being "classy" and hiding the cheapness of it all. but really, will it matter? aren't they all the same? they just have different pretty little faces, but they all come out the same.

there's a red one, and a pink one, and a blue one, and a yellow one. and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all come out the same.

so i'll go. and i'll pick out their sympathy card and pass it around, thinking, wouldn't it be better if someone called them? or visited them? or really cared? but they'll all sign their name and ask if he's okay, secretly wondering when he'll be back to pick up his slack.

and their lives at least, will go on.

-kt