One of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen in Vegas happened a few months ago. I was heading home from work a little after 3 a.m. – on the side streets instead of the freeway – and spotted two people hanging onto their grocery carts (not food filled carts but living off the street filled carts) to keep their carts from getting away on the downhill grade. They were on the dimly lit street ahead of me – a man in the lead, about 15 feet in front of the woman following him. As I approached and passed them, I couldn’t help but watch the woman. She was fairly thin, possibly in her thirties although it was hard to tell in the light. She held her cart with one hand and with the other, pressed the headphones up against her head as she ‘did the dance’. Literally. Using the cart’s weight to pull against, she twisted, gyrated, bent over knee dropping, back up and shaking, for all she was worth. It was as if there was no one else in the world…just her and the music and her body moving to its demands. She was ‘all-in on life’ at that moment. Beyond awesome!

I see rare glimplses of people that are experiencing the true essence of living. The moment when they just love being alive and nothing else matters. So brings me to Charlie Tuttle. I won’t profess to say I knew him…I did meet him and spend a bit of time jamming with him in a poker tournament. I met Charlie at The Clan Jam in March, 2005. He was pretty quiet – but then who could be heard over all the noise and people chatter, food grazing, tournament chip clatter, and confusion that was going on. I briefly stopped to visit with him and the Tennesse Crew (that would be Jason, Rachel, Lydia) that had arrived together. I knew, just from the way Charlie sat and the energy coming off of him, that he wasn’t well but didn’t know what the circumstances were and it was definitely not the time to talk about it. We were there to JAM. Poker was afoot. Jam we did. Charlie won our tournament.

There are a lot of things I want to say about living life and enjoying every moment you spend with yourself, people you love, and people you wish would go away. Out of all of the ways to verbalize, write, think, conjure, and try to be creative, it usually ends up in the same place. You are the master and major decision maker in how your time is spent. You can spend it being angry or spend it learning from those around you about yourself and finding ways to improve your mental health and life in the overview. Some circumstances are beyond our control…that is a given. But most of our lives we could/should release all of the frustration and anger into the air and let it blow away, leaving only a reminder of something we don’t want to do to ourselves.

I believe that’s what Charlie did. He took the best part of himself and put it forward to people around him, that’s why he was loved by so many people and his passing leaves him written into the minds of those that knew him. That my friends is the only way to achieve immortality…in the thoughts of others.

The main thing that impressed me about Charlie was that he was just so damn glad to be there. He was very happy to meet me, more than once thanked me for having them at my house, and all in all, just easy to be around. It was his first tournament…he won it! He was ‘all-in on life’.

Ahhhh…and Lydia and Rachel, the flower you brought me has been repotted and is adorning my entry way with beautiful, bright red flowers. *yippee – applause – launching rockets*