Dave the Opinionated

If history bestows a heroic surname on Dave, such as it did to Alexander (the Great), I think The Opinionated fits him quite well: Dave the Opinionated. Apparently, he was a very outspoken man. Most people would tell you that he was quiet and introverted, but those who truly knew him—-me and my mom, Alex, his friend Ramon and girlfriend Gina, Joandy and the rest of his Miami family-—knew that he was the first one to speak out and up. And I genuinely loved this about my brother, that he wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind, no matter how controversial—-and this is what made our conversations great. Even though his opinionated nature isn’t a physical attribute, I realize now that it belongs with the other four essential Daveisms.

           

I mentioned the word controversial because Dave’s opinions were often subversive and completely detached from the status quo. He probably viewed Thomas Jefferson not as a Founding Father but a slave tapper, Facebook as a glorious waste of tweens’ time (in spite of the fact that he himself had one), and organized religion as widescale fraud.

           

Sometimes his opinions stung, such as his negative critique of my ex-girlfriend. His words, swift as a snake, caught me unawares and shocked me. However, when a close friend of mine also told me the same thing, I realized that Dave’s opinion indeed had much validity to it—-and in my eyes he was absolved.

           

Other times his opinions were downright wrong. Alex can attest to this. Dave, for example, believed that watching (not playing) sports is a waste of grown men’s time. But no, no, NO! Sports have been around since the beginning of civilization and form the cornerstones of most societies. Humans have an essential, almost physiological, need for pastimes, and sports fulfill this need. Besides, sports just make people feel good.

           

Dave was a master of words. He formulated his opinions in ways that will make you giggle for a moment, and then think. The following is blasphemy, but it’s my best recollection of his opinion on liberal arts degrees (in an effort to sway me away from majoring in communications): “Bro, I’m earning $25 an hour for practically sitting on my ass watching DVD’s. On top of that, I get paid extra for working overnight. Now granted, there are times where from one moment to the next it suddenly becomes busy as hell, and I do do heavy lifting [of patients] from time to time, but 80% of my shift is me doing absolutely nothing. Now that’s a job! And I only had to study two years for it, which cost me about $800, whereas liberal arts majors go to school for four years, study their asses off, rack up $60,000 in student debt, can’t find a job for shit when they graduate, and end up working at Subway for four years before they land a job in their “field” that pays $12 an hour. That’s harsh, but in this economy, it’s true.” And indeed it is, though his speech failed to change my mind. What it did do, however, was not make me giggle and then think, but instead shiver like all hell.

           

But Dave knew exactly when to withhold his opinion. When Barack Obama was sworn in as President, I texted him CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA. He didn’t respond.

           

Sometimes I picture myself having an imaginary conversation with Dave. In the conversation, we are discussing his death. He is sad, remorseful, angry at himself, but very opinionated. I can hear him: “It was just plain stupid,” he tells me. “It’s like your whole life condensed and terminated by one stupid mistake. Damn.” He goes on to quote artists and philosophers, he makes analogies, and even jokes from time to time, his classic smirk flashing back like a rainbow. Even though there’s self-pity in his speech, there’s still a life-goes-on-attitude-—life after death, that is.

"And with strange eons even death may die."

H.P. Lovecraft