The title 21 Buzzards is from the creative mind of Jesse Boone. He chose it as the name for an online photo album for family and friends.
It’s an ironic cross of meaning; the honor of a 21 gun salute and the ignominious demise from buzzards.
Jesse chose the name after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Although the title embodied some of his acerbic wit, it was a vehicle to capture and cherish the life he had and the happiness he shared. It was fairly common for Jesse to regale his wife and friends with stories that started with “I was an innocent bystander minding my own business” and then a story of unique and often far fetched circumstances would be recounted to the smiles and guffaws of those around him.
I was fortunate to get to know Jesse and his wife Elizabeth through my current wife. They welcomed me into their friendship and, although never spoken, I truly felt a kinship with him. Around that same time is when his diagnosis became apparent.
In several aspects, I recognized in Jesse the embodiment of a stoic. The desire to not draw undue attention to himself, when he might be enduring some form of challenge and discomfort with time.
Out of respect for that, as his disease progressed, he was obviously shedding weight with treatments, the lumps and scars from surgeries were more apparent but I made sure that I greeted him with a firm handshake and looked him in the eye with the respect every man deserves. As an equal, not as a man dwindling with life to be pitied.
I miss the mundane male conversations over simple niceties like the weather, fishing, the joys of home ownership, boats, life, love, women and happiness. Along with a smattering of shared paranoia and conspiracy theories, it always made for an interesting evening.
While alive he granted permission for me to assume the domain when it became available.
I have no definitive direction that I intend to follow with this site right now. Other than as a partial tribute, partial vanity to satiate my desire to write and part opportunity to reach out to others that can relate.
21 Buzzards 