Nov. 2 is All Souls Day

Below, I have named just a few souls that I lovingly remember today. Some were my heroes. Some were my family of choice. Some were my family of origin. Some were important to members of my chosen family. Some inspired me directly. Some influenced who I have become and how I live from day to day. The "Church" recognizes some people as saints, but today we honor the sacred value of all souls who have touched our lives and our world in a positive way. Today, we can affirm that All Souls have dignity and value and all souls will live forever in the heart of God. Name some of your departed loved ones or heroes and bless their memory and know that they live on somewhere, somehow with eternal possibilities of Good before them. Let light perpetual shine upon them. Amen.

Stella Audrey Thomas Willard (maternal grandmother)
O.D. Marie Duckett Watkins Roberts (paternal grandmother)
Viola Jeanette Thomas Beggs (favorite great aunt)
T.L. Willard (maternal grandfather)
Mattie Griffin (life-partner's mother)
Tim Alvarado (childhood friend)
Ruby Una Miller (college friend)
Helen Matthis (college roommate's mother)
Ina Mae Cherry (great aunt)
W.C. Watkins (paternal grandfather)
Mae West (icon, cherished celebrity)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (hero)
Howard Thurman (theologian)
Sophie Tucker (icon, cherished celebrity)
Matthew Shepherd (gay martyr)
Lord Lawrence Olivier (legendary actor)
Sir Ralph Richardson (legendary actor)
Sir John Gielgud (legendary actor)
Keith Duckett (great uncle)
Ethel Merman (larger than life persona)
Charles Ludlam (off-broadway theatrical genius)
Ryan White (brave young public figure who lost battle with AIDS)
Larry Smith (friend and former lover)
Jose (life-partner's late lover)
Tuna Star (stage name of local drag celebrity in 1980s South Central Arkansas)
Sidhartha, the Buddha (enlightened sage)
Thurgood Marshall (hero, jurist)
Princess Diana (everyone loved her, the people's princess)
Princess Margaret (the party princess of the UK)
Princess Grace (the American princess of Monaco)
Bobby Kennedy (hero, role-model)
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (revolutionary, martyr)
Archbishop Oscar Romero (hero, champion of the people)
Ernest Holmes (philosopher, founder of Religious Science)
Bishop James Pike (visionary, progressive theologian)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (philosopher, essayist)