Remembering Andy: Reincarnation
I met Andy in 1986. He had been visiting the "French Quarter" of Texas - deep in the heart of Galveston Island. I was managing a retail store with a help wanted sign on the door. The moment Andy walked in we couldn't keep our eyes off one another. There was an uncanny familiarity that neither of us could shake. I was trying to figure out where I knew him from. I later found out that Andy was caught up in the same notion within his own mind.
Galveston 1986
Andy saw the sign and applied for the part-time position. He told me a different story about himself when he applied for the position. I later found out he was on a spiritual sabbatical after the release of a compilation album (Deep Six) that featured one of his songs from his band Malfunkshun. He told me he was looking for inspiration for future songs during his journey south from his homeland in Seattle. He was looking to earn the money for his passage back north to Seattle.
I hired him on the spot against my training. He didn't fit the mold for the type of workers I usually hired. I followed my instincts and listened to my heart. I wanted to know why my heart felt it knew him the way it did despite the fact that he was an obvious stranger to my mind. After I hired him, he told me he had a slight problem. He had no place to stay in Galveston. He was staying with friends or relatives across the bay off the island in Texas City. I laughed. I told him,
"You want me to give you a job and provide you with shelter as well? Do you want me to shine your shoes while I am at it?"
I sized him up and then offered him a place to bed down in my living room until he got his business in order. Within an hour of meeting Andy we were walking back to my apartment over looking the Gulf of Mexico. When we got to a bridge crossing the bay I stopped and said to Andy,
"Do you know what my Mother would be saying to me if she was looking over my shoulder right now? She would be saying, Are you out of your freaking mind? You DON'T know this guy. What are you doing inviting a perfect stranger to live with you? ARE you OUT of your mind?"
Andy said that he felt if his Mom was looking over his shoulder - she would pretty much be saying the same thing. I told Andy we owed it to our Mothers to figure out what was going on and why we were will to move in with each other an hour after meeting.
I asked Andy, "Why do I feel like I can trust you with my life. I feel like I could put my life in your hands and sleep like a baby knowing you would protect it and keep it safe. HOW can I know that - if I just met you less than an hour ago? What kind of voodoo spell have you cast on my mind that makes me belief that with all my heart and soul?"
Andy replied. "I think it is reincarnation at work here."
I hadn't shared my beliefs with Andy yet, Andy jumped right in and captured my own gut feelings in a nut shell. I asked him,
"Do you believe in that sort of thing?"
"I don't know enough to know but what else could it be. I feel like a part of me inside is just picking up where it left off somewhere in the past. It has to be my soul that knows your soul more so than our minds knowing one another. I feel the same way. My soul feels it can trust you more so than with any other person I ever met. We are being caught up in one of God's mysteries with benefits from another time and place. Seems like maybe we have inherited a friendship from our souls."
"A soul's inheritance? I have never quite heard it put that way before."
Standing on the bridge talking - we became instant friends and decided to roll with the flow. In the days to come - the minutes seemed like hours. The hours seemed like days and the days seemed like years as we touched upon eternal moments hidden between us. We discussed everything from life, love, art music and the mystery of life and death.
