Tribute to a Friend

For Red, From The C3 Exchange Men’s Group

The strongest man in the world
Is the man who lives with intention;
Who dares ask the universe why he is here,
Then dares to live according to the answer.

The strongest man in the world
Is the man who suffers indignity
At the hands of the world,
Then pays the world back with
Grace and humility.
The strongest man in the world
Is the man who rises to another day of suffering
And decides that it is a good day
To contribute something positive to the world.

He is a marine, yes,
and there are so many strong marines.
But this one had the strength to be a teacher
And the courage to be a poet.

Though this marine looked the Devil in the eye,
In the Devil’s face,
he persevered for five decades
to inspire every life touched.

This marine undertook his final mission:
In contempt of his pain,
He volunteered to love life intensely
And to love the love of his life unabashedly,
And to shower his fellow man with compassion.

He has marched bravely through his End Time,
bearing with dignity an unimaginable burden.
He must still have been the strongest man in the world.
We stand proud to have been called “friend” by Leonard Bird,
And we will always call him “friend.”