Resolution of Respect for Aaron Moe
Aaron Moe, 1986-2010
We are in a place in this world for a limited time with a given purpose, and with the breath of the infant we begin our race to eternity. A race everyone must run.
Whereas, in the providence of God, the administration, faculty and students of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, believing it is befitting to express our sympathy to the family at this celebration of life. We commend you to Him who knoweth best and will always do what is right. You have our sincere prayers.
Be it resolved, that we bow in humble submission to Him who never makes a mistake and remind the family to be encouraged by remembering and leaning on your faith, we respectfully submit to you these words from Maya Angelou:
When great trees fall,
Rocks on distant hills shudder,
Lions hunker down in tall grasses,
And even elephants lumber after safety.
When great trees fall in forests,
Small things recoil into silence,
Their senses eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
The air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.
We breathe briefly, our eyes, briefly,
See with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines,
Gnaws on kind words unsaid,
Promised walks never taken.
Great souls die and our reality,
Bound to them, takes leave of us.
Our souls, dependent upon their nurture,
Now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance,
Fall away.
We are not so much maddened
As reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.
And when great souls die
After a period peace blooms,
Slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us,
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
To the family, Aaron Moe, forever will exist in the heavens of eternity. Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution by given to the family and a copy kept in the archives of the USFSP Department of Journalism and Media Studies.
Humbly Submitted on February 22, 2010, St. Petersburg, Florida
Very fitting and well said! Rest in Peace Moe!